German GP: Bridgestone Saturday qualifying notes

Bridgestone & Schumacher reclaim Hockenheim pole

Bridgestone equipped Michael Schumacher stormed to a stunning flying lap in front of his home crowds this afternoon setting a pole time of 1 minute 13.306 seconds. Clearly relishing in the strength of his Bridgestone Potenza Formula One tyres, the championship points' leader pulled out a strong second sector and the fastest third sector of the field to head the nearest challenger, Juan Pablo Montoya, by almost four tenths of a second.

Schumacher last took pole in Hockenheim in 2002. Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro teammate Rubens Barrichello settled for the eighth fastest time overall but will benefit from Jenson Button dropping ten places on the grid due to an engine change earlier in the weekend. The Sauber Petronas, Jordan Ford and Wilux Minardi Cosworth runners, meanwhile, are all expecting to have a strong run tomorrow.

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport:

"An excellent result today for Michael at his home grand prix. Obviously what counts is being on top tomorrow but it was a great thing to see as we are clearly seeing the progress in our tyre development programme. If you compare Michael's times from sector two and three to those of last year, when we struggled with grip, there is a marked improvement."

"Tomorrow I expect to see strong performances from all the Bridgestone runners as there is plenty of scope for them to use the strength of our tyre characteristics to their advantage just as we have seen in previous races."

Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro:

"Michael really found the performance today. The Bridgestone tyre is very consistent and Michael put in an incredible performance. He took it a little bit easy on the first sector to leave the tyres for the rest of the lap."

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