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Bridgestone goes conservative for final four races

Bridgestone is not taking any risks at its final four races as F1 tyre supplier © Getty Images

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Bridgestone will not be making any more extreme allocations of tyre compounds - like it did at Hockenheim - for the rest of the 2010 season.

For the German Grand Prix in July, and in the interests of the 'show', the Japanese supplier paired its hardest compound (hard) in its range with the softest (super soft). But Bridgestone has announced that, for the last four grands prix of the season between Japan and Abu Dhabi, only one compound step - rather than the extreme two steps at Hockenheim - will separate the selected tyre allocations.

"Due to the nature of the [four] tracks, there were no further opportunities for a hard/super soft allocation, although we did evaluate this after the lessons learnt [at Hockenheim]," head of motorsport tyre development Hirohide Hamashima said.

Bridgestone will take the soft and hard compounds to the Japanese and Korean Grands Prix while using super-soft and medium compounds in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

"The most interesting question for these final allocations is which tyres will we bring to Korea," Hamashima added. "As always for a new race we work closely with the FIA, the circuit and the teams to reach our decision but in addition to all this information we always have safety in mind so our allocation for the first race in Korea will naturally be on the conservative side.

"The tyres for Korea are currently being shipped to the track and we are very interested to see this new facility when we go there in seven weeks time. Suzuka puts the tyres through a tough workout so we have the harder combination of hard and soft, whilst Sao Paulo and Yas Marina suit the softer combination of super soft and medium."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.