Michelin successful again

Kimi Raikkonen won a tense, rain-affected Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. It was the Finn's sixth victory of the season and Michelin's 15th. All drivers started on intermediate tyres in fuzzy conditions.

Nick Shorrock, director of Michelin F1 activities “This was the race we have wanted for some time – a chance to see how our latest wetweather tyres performed in hard racing conditions. It was important to understand how the track might evolve and to identify the appropriate moment to change tyres, but hindsight shows that the decision to use intermediates throughout – in wet and drying conditions – was the best option. We are extremely pleased with this result. The Michelins were very competitive in the wet, which gave our partner teams an advantage, and they were able to capitalise on that as our tyres’ performance held up in the changing conditions.”

Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director “There were lots of questions to be answered at the start of the race. How might our rivals fare? Would the confidence we have in our latest wets prove to be justified in the wake of so many encouraging tests? I think we can be very satisfied with the answers. We knew from our dominant victory in last season’s rain-hit Brazilian GP that we had made progress with our wet-weather rubber – and we have continued to build on that. Today’s result proved the point in no uncertain terms. We picked up lots of useful data today and this was a very satisfying victory.”

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren Mercedes CEO “Today’s conditions were difficult but our Michelin tyres were great for the whole race. Our drivers stayed on intermediates throughout. They proved to be very competitive in the wet and we were able to run a no-risk strategy by staying out on them in the drier conditions at the end, when we were still able to be competitive. The tyres demonstrated great versatility and I’d like to thank Michelin for the part it played in another McLaren victory.”