In 1997, our first F1 season, the main characteristic of Bridgestone's race tyres, and the quality that distinguished them from our rival Goodyear, was durability. This is reflected in Hamashima's discussions with Alain Prost, the former World Champion now leading his own team, and in the results they obtained. When Hamashima went to Prost with his idea: "Our tyres have especially good grip and are very resistant to abrasion. Why don't we take advantage of this and reduce the number of pit stops?" Prost was reluctant, but he allowed himself to be persuaded. The race result showed Hamashima's plan to be correct, and proved to the world the durability of Bridgestone's tyres. It would happen again in the Spanish GP. Here, we had slower times in the qualifying session, but in the race the Goodyear equipped tyres had to make three pit stops to our two, which gave us our first podium place. And then came our first win, in the Hungarian GP. In that race blisters slowed our rival, while Bridgestone's tyres again showed their strength.