Hungarian GP: Bridgestone Friday practice notes

Bridgestone seek Budapest bounty

Rubens Barrichello topped the times for the Bridgestone runners today on a very hot first day of the Hungarian Grand Prix, finishing the two, hour-long practice sessions with the second and seventh fastest times overall. Teammate Michael Schumacher was fifth fastest in the first session but completed just one lap in the afternoon practice after an electrical problem stopped him on track, putting an end to his session.

Minardi's new driver Robert Doornbos had a productive couple of sessions, finishing the day ahead of his fellow Dutch teammate, Christijan Albers. Both Minardi drivers seem to have been spurred on by their new pairing. Making his F1 race weekend debut today for Minardi was Israeli driver Chanoch Nissany, who completed eight laps in the morning practice as the team's Friday test driver.

The Jordan team drivers Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro also had a busy day assessing their tyre specifications ahead of qualifying and the race while Danish driver, Nicolas Kiesa, continues to get to grips with the Jordan after stepping into Robert Doornbos' old shoes just one week ago as the team's Friday test driver.

Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager:

"As is normal on a Friday, the track was very dirty today and quite slippery. Several cars seemed to be struggling, especially at turn one but the Bridgestone cars got on with the job in hand and began their comparisons in the first session. These comparisons were continued in the second session. Michael Schumacher's second session was cut short unfortunately but there is plenty of data from Rubens."

"The times from the Minardi and Jordan drivers also look encouraging as they seem closer than normal and this is good to see. We need of course to check all the tyres and go over the data tonight but the performance and wear seems good. At this stage we are happy with the specifications we have brought here."

Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro:

"We had an alternator failure on Michael's car today so we need to understand why that occurred. We could see from the data that it had stopped working and that stranded the car on track which was a shame as he had just started a proper tyre comparison."

"Rubens did a good programme today. He had a first look at both tyre specifications this morning to get the new tyre performance and then did two very good long runs this afternoon which has given us some excellent information to make a tyre choice. It looks pretty clear which Bridgestone specification to use so as long as all the wear figures etc are OK then I think we've got a clear tyre choice for the weekend."

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