Bridgestone's hard tyres given sign-off

The Japanese tyre manufacturer is satisfied that the compound is durable enough for race distances, and are happy to stick with it for the season now.

"We have learnt that the hard compound specification is, in our opinion, a correct choice for this circuit," said Bridgestone's Kees van der Grint, the head of trackside engineering.

"Positively, it was proven by some teams that you can run with the tyre for a full stint with good degradation results. It was nice to see that the tyre was capable of setting the quickest lap time at the end of the stint."

After tests at Barcelona, Jerez and Valencia this winter, van der Grint is confident that the full range of tyres will be perfectly suited to the demands of the season ahead.

"From what we have seen so far in testing there is no reason to change the specification of the tyres we have produced, we have produced a good tyre for the teams to race on for this season," he explained.

"We think we did our homework quite well in the winter and I think the tyres are quite suitable. Having said that, we need to bear in mind that we will go to a much hotter climate in the future."

Testing is due to resume at Bahrain next week for the first hot weather test of the winter.