Austrian GP: Bridgestone Saturday qualifying notes

Bridgestone on rows 1 & 2 with Ferrari & Sauber

Michael Schumacher pulled out all the stops this afternoon putting his Bridgestone equipped F2003-GA on pole at the Austrian A1 Ring. The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver's time of 1m09.150 topped rival Kimi Raikkonen's time by just 0.039 of a second. Teammate Rubens Barrichello, meanwhile, had to settle for fifth.

However, it was Sauber Petronas' Nick Heidfeld, who seems to have been on good form throughout this weekend, who lines up next on the grid for Bridgestone with fourth on the grid. This will be the German driver's highest placed start in a Grand Prix this year. Also making it into the top ten for Bridgestone were Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda's Jenson Button and Jordan Ford's Giancarlo Fisichella in seventh and ninth respectively.

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport:

"We're very pleased with today's final qualifying result - the fourth pole this year for Michael [Schumacher] and Bridgestone. Nick Heidfeld also put in an excellent lap to find himself on the second row of the grid which is good news. All in all, we have five cars in the top ten spots today and I think that is a good reflection of the performance of the tyres we brought here for the Austrian Grand Prix."

Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro:

"That was very exciting! Michael made one or two mistakes but he brought it all together and did a fantastic lap in the end. I think the Bridgestones will be good in the race tomorrow. We've got a little bit of graining which makes it difficult on a qualifying lap but they should look pretty good in the race. I'm quite looking forward to it."

Willy Rampf, Technical Director of Sauber Petronas:

"I think the Bridgestone tyre performance is on a good level. Today we really only concentrated on set-up work so we could get the maximum out of the tyres and the car and for Nick [Heidfeld], we achieved our target. We tend to be very quick here as we know basically what set-up the car requires. For sure the Bridgestones help at this circuit - they have a good qualifying performance and we expect that also in the race."

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