Monaco GP: Bridgestone race notes

Bridgestone tyres help three teams score

An enthralling wheel-to-wheel chase through the streets of Monaco ended with Michael Schumacher locked into second place and two other Bridgestone drivers in the points. The principality's narrow streets prevented the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver from overtaking race winner David Coulthard but he was still able to strengthen his position in the world championship, which he now leads by 33 points.

Some of the battles were too close for comfort as the lack of space caught other drivers out. Giancarlo Fisichella stayed out of trouble, including narrowly avoiding his own team-mate at the exit of the tunnel, to finish 5th and add to the points he won two weeks ago in Austria for DHL Jordan Honda. Heinz-Harald picked up another point for OrangeArrows in 6th place.

Bridgestone Results:

2nd Michael Schumacher; 5th Giancarlo Fisichella; 6th Heinz-Harald Frentzen; 7th Rubens Barrichello; 8th Nick Heidfeld; 12th Enrique Bernoldi; DNF Felipe Massa; Olivier Panis; Jacques Villeneuve; Takuma Sato.

Ross Brawn - Technical Director - Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro

"Clearly, we had the better tyre in the race by quite a margin. Together with Bridgestone we will work together on qualifying performance for next year because this is a track where qualifying is critical, but we had a super race tyre which allowed both drivers to put in fastest laps."

Gary Anderson - Head of Race and Test Engineering - DHL Jordan Honda

"The tyres were very good and meant we were able to run quicker every lap. Giancarlo could have taken Jarno Trulli at the end but we did not want to risk the two points we had. We have some momentum now, motivation in the team is high and it is nice to be able to challenge."

Hisao Suganuma - Technical Manager - Bridgestone Motorsport

"I said yesterday I was confident about the race and our performance today proved that overall we were quicker, more consistent and suffered less wear. In the early stages, our top cars clearly had more pace but were unable to take advantage of it because of the difficulty of overtaking at Monaco. Once Michael was clear of the traffic in front of him he was able to push hard on his second set of tyres, putting in a series of fastest laps, while Rubens Barrichello eventually claimed a new lap record. Even so, we know qualifying here is crucial and we have learned this weekend that we must produce better tyres for Saturday here next year. I would also like to congratulate Giancarlo and Heinz-Harald and their teams for scoring more points."

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