Japanese GP Friday Bridgestone Notes

Yoshihiko Ichikawa, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager: "Much as we had expected, the abrasive surface of the Suzuka track saw a high rate of tyre wear on several cars today. The teams are also concerned about the lack of grip, with complaints of both oversteer and understeer, but the reason for this is likely to be the dirty state of the track. - and by tomorrow it should have cleaned up. Although most drivers concentrated on the Soft compound, others were also evaluating our Hard tyre. The final decision will probably depend on the level of degradation as the tyres wear down."

Mike Gascoyne, Technical Director, Jordan Grand Prix: "We ran the same two sets of Soft tyres all day today. Tyre wear here is quite high and I expect most teams to be running a two-stop strategy on Sunday. In fact the track was very 'green' today and by Sunday I don't expect wear to be as big a problem. This should make quite an exciting race because the drop-off in tyre performance will be quite pronounced and it will be crucial to get the timing of the pit stops correct. Today we had a problem with the rear tyres going off, but that is to be expected when you are running on a fresh track. By Sunday the surface should have a lot more grip, which will greatly reduce any problems in the performance and wear of the tyres. I will be interested to see how the new wet tyres perform, but with a forecast of good weather for the whole weekend it looks unlikely that we will need to bring out the wets."

Robin Gearing, Race Engineer on Rubens Barrichello's Stewart-Ford: "Because we only get the opportunity to visit Suzuka once a year, today has been spent finding a balance and establishing good stability in the car. Although we lost the first 15 minutes of the first session today with a throttle problem, this wasn't too serious because the track was still very 'green' at that time and there wasn't much happening in terms of lap times. We struggled a little at this track last year because of lack of experience here, and we are still trying to find a good setup right now. We haven't yet made our final choice of tyre and we won't decide until we have seen how much the track has changed tomorrow."

TEMPERATURES AIR TRACK WEATHER Morning 25:-27: 31:-37: Sunny - dry Afternoon 26:-28: 34:-37: Sunny - dry