San Marino GP: Bridgestone Friday practice notes

Bridgestone on the pace at Imola

Bridgestone Motorsport and its four teams hit the "Enzo e Dino Ferrari" circuit with earnest this afternoon with Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro showing their competitiveness from the start. Michael Schumacher continued his top form heading the time sheets in the morning session, before setting the third fastest time in the second after completing a number of long runs. Sauber Petronas, Jordan Ford and Wilux Minardi Cosworth, meanwhile, all completed their day of tyre assessment and they will each have high hopes of starting the European season by notching up some points.

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport:

"Friday is all about working with our teams as they assess their two tyre specifications before making a final decision this evening. Amongst other things, we shall look at how the tyres handled and the wear rate. The track was a little green this morning which meant some teams experienced some graining and understeer. However, as the track conditions improved, this lessened and we don't expect this to continue as the weekend progresses."

"We did experience warm conditions today with temperatures reaching 40 degrees and although this is higher than expected for Imola in April, our tyres performed competitively. We expect the Bridgestone equipped teams will be able to choose either of their two permitted tyre choices for this weekend's qualifying and race."

Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro:

"A very productive second session which meant we were able to concentrate on our race work and complete some long runs. We wanted to check how the tyres are performing as they are different specifications to those tested previously. It's quite hard on brakes here so we also used this afternoon's session to check that aspect of the car's performance. Overall, Michael is quite happy with his balance and set-up whilst Rubens was not so satisfied. We certainly have a picture of what we want to do with the tyres this weekend."

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