After a promising start to the Spanish
Grand Prix, round five of the FIA Formula One World
Championship, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s Rubens Barrichello
was the highest placed finisher of the Bridgestone runners this
afternoon, crossing the line in ninth place. Unfortunately for his
teammate Michael Schumacher, the loss of air in first his left rear
tyre and then his left front tyre, forced a premature end to the
reigning world champion’s race. It was a disappointing end
for the driver who had steadily climbed from his eighth place starting
grid position to a certain podium place. The Scuderia now lies fifth
in the Constructors’ Championship with 18 points while Michael
Schumacher and Barrichello have ten and eight points respectively.
Encouragingly for Jordan, both their drivers, Tiago Monteiro and
Narain Karthikeyan finished the 66-lap race but it was a disappointing
day for Minardi’s Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher,
neither of whom finished the race. All of Bridgestone’s runners
will now be looking ahead to the next round in Monaco, the only
street circuit on the F1 calendar.
Hisao
Suganuma – Technical Manager – Bridgestone Motorsport
“Today’s result was certainly disappointing.
Neither Minardi nor Jordan experienced tyre problems this weekend
and we were hopeful that both Ferrari drivers could finish well
today. Unfortunately Michael Schumacher suffered a loss of balance
and then a loss of air in his left rear tyre in the latter stages
of the race and after pitting to change the tyre, he then had a
loss of air in his front left tyre. Safety is of course our first
priority and we have already started a thorough investigation into
the cause of this loss of air. What we can say, however, is that
the wear on Michael’s rear tyres was within acceptable boundaries.”
Ross
Brawn – Technical Director – Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
“A disappointing end to the weekend as Michael was
in a strong position and was starting to put pressure on Alonso.
The race was coming together and certainly a podium was within reach.
Unfortunately he then lost air in two tyres, both on the left side
of the car. Obviously we shall now investigate fully what caused
these problems. It’s possible that Fisichella’s earlier
pitstop was caused by similar problems. Rubens on the other hand
did well, given where he started on the grid. We shall now regroup
and hope to go forward.” |
