18/03/2005
NEWS STORY
Bridgestone Motorsport's teams: Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, Jordan Grand Prix and the Minardi F1 Team; got to grips with Malaysia's Sepang Circuit today as they completed Day One of Round Two in scorching temperatures of up to 55 degrees Celcius on track. Friday's two, hour long sessions enable the teams to assess their two tyre specifications before making a final choice early on Saturday morning and much of their assessment was done in the afternoon session.
Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager: "As always the track was very dusty first thing this morning. This didn't encourage the teams to do much running, although with new drivers in need of driving time, the Jordan and Minardi teams did quite a few laps. Our teams did their main tyre comparison runs, however, in the second practice session this afternoon. Rubens unfortunately went off early in this session so Michael completed the majority of Ferrari's work. We have plenty of data to analyse this evening before final selections are made for the remainder of the weekend. Track temperatures were quite hot, reaching a high of 55 degrees Celcius so we were pleased with the results today and are looking forward to a competitive weekend."
Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: "Michael had some spare mileage because he didn't use the engine much at the last race so he was able to do a long run comparison with the two Bridgestone tyres, which was lucky because Rubens had an off, cutting short his session. The tyres will be crucial here so it will be the inevitable balance of finding a tyre which is fast and a tyre which will last throughout the race. The heat does not seem to be an issue for the tyres and we now just have to look at the data before making a decision."