French GP - Bridgestone preview - 12th July 17:46pm GMT

After a successful trip to North America for the Canadian and US Grands Prix, Bridgestone Motorsport will be arriving in France this week with a spring in its step. This year's championship is still very much up for grabs and Bridgestone is eager for all its teams to make the most of the remaining eight rounds.

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa stormed to a resounding 1-2 in Indianapolis ten days ago and they will be keen to keep up the momentum at round eleven in Magny-Cours. With the second half of the season well underway, the Panasonic Toyota Racing and WilliamsF1 teams will also be looking to take as many points as they can this coming weekend while MF1 Racing and the Super Aguri F1 Team are aiming to get on the points tables.

Hiroshi Yasukawa, Director of Motorsport:
"Last week's announcement by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) that Bridgestone has been successful in its tender to become official tyre supplier for the 2008-2010 FIA Formula One World Championships has been a real boost for us all. With this important news we can now plan ahead for the future while also fully concentrating on making the most of this year of tyre competition. Ferrari's result in Indianapolis has given them a real chance of fighting for the championship while Toyota is enjoying an upturn in their fortunes. It looks as if we will have an exciting second half of the season!"

Tyres for France
The 2006 tyre regulations permit each driver seven sets of dry tyres, four sets of wet weather tyres and three sets of extreme wet weather tyres. Combined with the increased number of teams running with Bridgestone in 2006, approximately 1,200 Bridgestone Potenza Formula One tyres have been sent from the Technical Centre in Kodaira City, Tokyo, to the French Magny-Cours Circuit.

Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager:
"Magny-Cours is a medium speed circuit with a rough but very dark track surface. For tyre manufacturers this has several implications. The track does not give a great amount of grip but because the surface texture can cause graining we have to find the right balance between a durable but medium to soft tyre compound."

"The colour of the tarmac also means that if the sun is out, the track soaks up the heat and we can experience very high track temperatures. The track's high speed corners, tight hairpins and fast chicane also make it a combination circuit where tyres need to provide good rear traction and good change of direction performance. This will be the key to getting good lap times at Magny- Cours."