Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello
were hot on the pace today on the first day of
the Italian Grand Prix weekend in Monza. In warm, sunny conditions
the Bridgestone
equipped Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro pair posted first and second
fastest times in the
morning’s one-hour long session before Barrichello was narrowly
pipped by just 0.053s by
Kimi Raikkonen in the second session. Schumacher was just behind
in third although his
morning time was the fastest time of the day. Sauber Petronas’
Felipe Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella ran consistently in the pack
with most teams continuing their efforts from last week’s
test at Monza. Jordan Ford and Minardi Cosworth, meanwhile, made
full use of their third drivers, who are only permitted to run on
Fridays, and both Timo Glock and Bas Leinders had a productive day
working through their respective assessment programmes.
Hisao
Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager
“All the Bridgestone teams tried their respective
two tyre specifications with each type showing competitive performance
traits. There are naturally some pros and cons with each of the
specs so we must now carefully analyse the data to enable us to
advise the teams about the best tyre for the remainder of the weekend.
This morning the track was quite green making it difficult to make
proper use of the results and we did see some graining on the fronts
and high wear on the rear but the track improved continuously as
the sessions progressed and we are now satisfied with both the performance
and wear of the specifications we have brought here this weekend.
We just need to take into account the improving track over the weekend
when making the final tyre choices with the Bridgestone teams.”
The
Teams
Ross
Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro:
“Very straight forward sessions today with no problems.
We did two good, long runs on both specifications of tyre enabling
us to make our tyre choice this evening. We shall make a decision
in conjunction of course with our preferred strategy. The cars are
handling well and generally we picked up where we left off in the
test here last week. We’re quite happy and looking forward
to the rest of the weekend.” |
