Tyres weak spot in qualifying for Ferrari

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's Technical Director Ross Brawn said he was reasonably pleased with Michael Schumacher's second place in the Monaco GP. "Obviously it was a bit frustrating having the quickest car, but not being able to win because of the lack of chances for overtaking. Once again we have seen how important qualifying is, especially on a track like this. The Bridgestones proved to be very good in the race.

"We had already seen in practice that the tyres were good, unfortunately, we were not able to get the best out of them in qualifying," explained Brawn. "We have to work with Bridgestone to be sure of having a bit more of a margin on tracks where grid positions are crucial. I would say the race showed that the Japanese tyres were better than the French ones."

As for what happened to Rubens Barrichello, Ross Brawn believes the Brazilian's race was compromised by qualifying and from a less than perfect start when he lost two places.

"I think it is frustrating for a driver to be behind another driver and not be able to get past even when he has a quicker car. Unfortunately, that's what happened to Rubens," continued the Technical Director. "As for the accident with Kimi Raikkonen, Rubens was lucky to only damage the nose. We have a monitoring system and if one of the suspension components had reached a critical stress level we would have spotted it already as he drove round into the pits. I think the crash looked more spectacular than it actually was."

-ferrari-