Bahrain GP: Bridgestone Saturday qualifying notes

Bridgestone & Ferrari take first ever pole in Bahrain!

Bridgestone Motorsport and the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team have taken the honour of becoming the first ever tyre manufacturer-team partnership to take pole position at the world's newest Formula One circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain. Michael Schumacher and team mate Rubens Barrichello will line up on the first row of the grid after setting times of 1m30.139s and 1m30.530s respectively. The pair was noticeably more competitive than the opposition in the hot and tough conditions of a constantly evolving track and both will be hoping for another good result in Sunday's inaugural Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport:

"As always it's fantastic to see the Ferrari drivers on the front row. It is also a great privilege to take the first ever pole position at a new circuit a circuit at which no Bridgestone team has previously run. So far our pre-race predictions have been on the right lines and our Bridgestone Formula One Potenza tyres are competitive in these tough conditions. Of course, tomorrow is what counts so we shall collate today's data and analyse it so we can advise our teams about their chosen tyres and how they will perform with their strategies. However, we do expect to see the Bridgestone teams take away points tomorrow. Sunday's race will be yet another big challenge but we're ready!"

Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro:

"It was a bit of a surprise I must say but a pleasant surprise. You do run the cars more conservatively in practice, with the one engine rule you can't afford to do anything else, but maybe we run our cars more conservatively than the others. I'm obviously delighted with front row. We shall see what strategies people have tomorrow and the Bridgestone tyres are holding up well. I think being a new circuit, the track will develop a lot and we need to see whether that works for or against us. We have no experience of how this track will go during a race, so it's going to be interesting."

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