Belgian GP: Bridgestone race notes

50th Ferrari-Bridgestone podium in a row

Michael Schumacher broke yet another Formula 1 record by winning today's Belgian Grand Prix, his 10th race victory this year to beat his and Nigel Mansell's previous best tally of nine in a single season. The win also marked the 50th consecutive race in which at least one Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver has been on the podium. All of the top three places the Ferrari drivers have claimed since the 1999 Malaysian Grand Prix have been on Bridgestone tyres. Rubens Barrichello's 2nd place meant the team completed the achievement in style.

It proved to be a less successful day for Bridgestone's other teams. A sudden rush of retirements in the closing laps included three cars on Bridgestone tyres. Jacques Villeneuve continued his run this weekend as the best Bridgestone driver after Michael and Rubens by finishing in 8th place.

Ross Brawn - Technical Director - Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro

"I must admit I was astonished because genuinely I thought it would be a much harder race today. The immediate feeling was that other people were on a one-stop strategy so we had to keep the pace up. I kept telling Michael to slow down when the strategies became clearer but you can see how he responded! Michael's tyre choice suited the conditions well and the Bridgestones were fantastic today."

Hisao Suganuma - Technical Manager - Bridgestone Motorsport

"Congratulations to Michael on his record 10th win and I am happy that Rubens was able to move closer to 2nd place in the championship. Overall our performance today was good and we had no significant problems with either specification. Nevertheless, despite a number of retirements our surviving cars were still unable to collect points today so we will of course be investigating if we could have helped them further."

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