Bridgestone’s extreme weather tyres made their 2003 debut appearance this afternoon giving its teams a clear advantage over their competitors in today’s first qualifying session at a very wet Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada. With the possibility of further rain for tomorrow’s final qualifying session, Sunday’s grid could spring a few surprises.

Extreme weather tyres may only be used with the permission of the FIA’s Race Director if conditions warrant their use and with Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher heading the field, followed by Sauber Petronas’ Nick Heidfeld in third and Jordan Ford’s Ralph Firman in fourth, Bridgestone’s tyre performance was clear to see.

However, this morning’s free practice session saw only a few minutes of dry conditions. With only the four teams who opted for Friday private testing getting any substantial dry running, tyre choice decisions, should final qualifying and Sunday’s race be dry, could prove interesting this weekend.

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport, said:
“I’m really happy to see that the performance of our extreme weather tyres was so good in today’s qualifying session. We obviously had the right tyres for these conditions and the results speak for themselves – we had the better performing tyre. And to back it up we had Nick Heidfeld in third, Ralph Firman in fourth and two good performances from the Minardi drivers. Of course we need to settle down now and analyse today’s results and concentrate on the next two days but I think today was a real showcase for Bridgestone’s technological strengths in the field of wet weather tyre development.”

Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, said:
“Both drivers were happy and they did a good job in those conditions. I have to say, Bridgestone’s extreme weather tyre was very good. I think conditions did worsen during the session but we ran at the same time as Raikkonen, Alonso and Montoya and we clearly had a big tyre advantage.”

Willy Rampf, Technical Director of Sauber Petronas, said:
“It is clear that for these conditions, the Bridgestone tyres are superior to those of our rivals. We had found a good balance on the cars and although the tyre pressures and settings were a bit of a guess, I think we got it right!”