Chinese GP: Bridgestone Friday practice notes

Rubens Barrichello leads Bridgestone runners in China

The final round of the FIA Formula One World Championship got off to a somewhat hazy start today at the Shanghai International Circuit as the teams got to work in the two, one-hour long practice sessions.

Despite a few drops of rain in the first session, Bridgestone's teams all tried their two specifications of dry tyres. Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's Rubens Barrichello was the front runner of the Bridgestone shod teams today, setting the second and sixth fastest times of the respective sessions.

Michael Schumacher was fifth in the first session but will be looking to improve on his second session placing of 14th ahead of tomorrow's final qualifying session of the year. The Jordan and Minardi drivers also used the two sessions to assess their tyre choices.

Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager:

"As expected the track was green this morning which meant we saw a lot of front tyre graining. We also saw a few raindrops in the first free practice but fortunately it stayed dry. As a result, however, some of the teams tried both their tyre specifications in the first session in case it rained in the second session."

"As it happened, the weather remained stable and all the Bridgestone teams ran both their tyre specs in the second session. Track conditions had also improved by this time and we managed to get some good indications of our tyre performance for the weekend ahead."

"We shall now check the wear rates and heat durability of the tyres before making our final recommendations to the teams. Looking at Rubens Barrichello's lap times I am confident we shall be competitive here."

Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro:

"We have good balance on the cars and both drivers seem reasonably happy. Michael is a little slower than Rubens so we need to understand why that is. Both Bridgestone tyres look nice and consistent so the decision will probably be down to which ever is the quickest on the first lap as well as checking the tyre wear figures."

"We are quite pleased with the way the tyres are behaving on the smooth track surface as the last time we ran on a smooth surface was in Turkey. It seems better this time."

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