Monaco GP: Bridgestone Thursday prctice notes

Bridgestone ready to raise the stakes in Monaco

WilliamsF1's Alex Wurz set the pace today in the second of the day's two, one-hour long practice sessions with a time of 1m15.907s. The Bridgestone shod driver completed a total of 55 laps while testing the two specifications of tyre his team has chosen for the Monaco Grand Prix weekend.

Bridgestone's four other teams (Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, Panasonic Toyota Racing, MF1 Racing and the Super Aguri F1 Team) also used the time wisely to get in as many laps as possible on this unforgiving 3.34km circuit. Monaco is the only proper street circuit on the F1 calendar and the fact that nearly all the drivers completed some meaningful running in both sessions demonstrates the respect this circuit demands.

Monaco is one of the smoothest tracks on the calendar and Bridgestone has brought a selection of tyres to Monaco this weekend, including some new very soft compound tyres. With F1 track activities starting a day earlier than normal, the teams now have an extra day before having to decide which tyres will give them the best opportunity in Sunday's 78-lap race.

Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager:

"Track conditions this morning were not too bad. The majority of the Bridgestone shod cars started with their softer option and Alex Wurz immediately set a good time which suggests that the tyres are performing well. The third car drivers started their tyre comparisons enabling those teams to get a good indication of which tyre will be best for Sunday afternoon."

"The other three teams were also able to compare their two specifications. At this moment we expect both hard and soft specifications will be used in the race but we shall make our normal tyre checks and study the data first before giving our final recommendations to the teams. Furthermore, the track improved quite a lot with running today so we will have to take any further potential changes into account as they could affect tyre performance later in the weekend."

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