Monaco GP: Bridgestone Thursday notes

Fisichella leads Bridgestone runners

The 60th Monaco Grand Prix got off to an eventful start today under overcast skies and with difficult track conditions that saw a number of cars going off. Giancarlo Fisichella's best lap of 1:19.680 made him the fastest driver on Bridgestone tyres in 4th place, with the Ferraris of Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher in 7th and 11th positions respectively.

In the first session, Michael Schumacher was quickest for Bridgestone with the fastest time of the morning, a 1:21.094. His teammate finished in 4th place, followed by Heinz-Harald Frentzen for OrangeArrows and the Lucky Strike BAR Hondas of Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis.

Tyre Performance

Hisao Suganuma, technical manager of Bridgestone Motorsport:

"It was difficult to do a proper comparison between the two dry tyres and to judge their performance today because the track was very green and people were running various fuel loads, hence the mixed bag of results. Nevertheless it was a useful session and we have gathered a lot of important data and information. Graining is an issue that we anticipated here but this can be improved by car set-up. Tonight we will discuss with our teams how they wish to approach qualifying on Saturday."

The Tyre Choice

Bridgestone has brought three new specifications to Monaco - two new dry-weather tyres and a new intermediate, all developed to provide maximum grip on the twisty street circuit.

Hisao Suganuma said: "Some of our cars tried the intermediates at the beginning but the track was too dry so the focus was on comparing the two dry-weather specifications. One definitely has more grip while the other gives better balance."

The Teams

Ross Brawn, technical director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro:

"Thursday in Monaco is always a little fragmented and with people falling off and hitting the barriers it is difficult to run a smooth programme. However, considering what we managed to do today and the position we are in, we should be reasonably competitive. We tried both tyres - it's not quite clear yet which we will choose and we need to spend some time going through the data. We worked on race set-up this afternoon which is reflected in the times but the drivers are reasonably happy."

Gary Anderson, head of race and test engineering, DHL Jordan Honda:

"Giancarlo is very good and was able to pick up a good lap, but today is not Saturday so we cannot get too excited. We did a back-to-back comparison with the tyres and we know how they performed so we just need to get the set-up of the car right to make best use of them."

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