Monaco GP: Bridgestone Saturday notes

Street-fight for race advantage

A challenging qualifying session for the Monaco Grand Prix ended with Michael Schumacher leading the cars on Bridgestone tyres. The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver, who has won in Monaco five times, will start tomorrow's race from third place on the grid with a best time of 1:17.118. His teammate Rubens Barrichello battled through the traffic to finish not far behind on a 1:17.357. The Brazilian will start the race from 5th position. All the other Bridgestone runners qualified together with the group of eight drivers led by Giancarlo Fisichella in 11th place for DHL Jordan Honda. Rookie drivers Felipe Massa and Takuma Sato qualified 13th and 16th for their first Monaco Grand Prix.

Bridgestone Results

3rd Michael Schumacher 1:17.118; 5th Rubens Barrichello 1:17.357; 11th Giancarlo Fisichella 1:18.342; 12th Heinz-Harald Frentzen 1:18.607; 13th Felipe Massa 1:18.006; 14th Jacques Villeneuve 1:18.252; 15th Enrique Bernoldi 1:18.412; 16th Takuma Sato 1:18.461; 17th Nick Heidfeld 1:18.500; 18th Olivier Panis 1:19.569

Ross Brawn, technical director, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro

"We had to fight a bit harder for our positions today. We have had a few qualifying sessions where it has been more straightforward but it has been a little tougher here. Nevertheless, I am confident that we have a good tyre for the tomorrow's race but obviously we were not quick enough for qualifying."

Hisao Suganuma, technical manager, Bridgestone Motorsport

"I am a little disappointed with the results from qualifying because we have become used to seeing at least one of our cars on the front row and a good grid position is important here. However, I think we will see a big difference in our performance in the race situation tomorrow. In a longer stint I expect us to be more competitive because our tyres have shown good consistency this weekend."

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