31/07/2005
NEWS STORY
Bridgestone shod Michael Schumacher stormed off pole position in this afternoon's Hungarian Grand Prix to fight a close race with eventual race winner Kimi Raikkonen. The reigning World Champion made the best of his much improved car-tyre package today to take the chequered flag in second place. He fought a hard battle which saw him pushing as much as possible in the opening laps of the race and trading fastest laps with the fast closing Finn. Unfortunately the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver lost the lead during the second round of pit stops and decided that he would be better off managing his car and tyre performance to ensure a haul of eight points. Schumacher and Ferrari continue to lie third in the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships respectively. Rubens Barrichello had a frustrating race after contact with a fellow driver resulted in an unexpectedly early pit stop for a new front wing. He was never able to get clear of the pack after that and crossed the finishing line in tenth place. Jordan's Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro both finished the race while neither Minardi driver finished: a disappointing end for the Dutch pair.
Hisao Suganuma – Technical Manager – Bridgestone Motorsport: The race started very well with Michael immediately setting a very good pace. He and Kimi Raikkonen seemed to be swapping fastest laps in the early stages, which, after a good qualifying performance yesterday, was an encouraging sign of the improvements that have been made over the season. In the second half of the race we saw Michael's lap times drop off a bit which means we still have some work to do with Ferrari but we are pleased he was able to hold on to his second place finish. We can see from today's race that there are some good points in our tyre performance. We now just need to keep pushing and improving upon those points. For the other Bridgestone runners, today's race was a tough one. Rubens and both the Jordan drivers crossed the finishing line but they were never really able to get a clear run. Let's hope they have a better weekend in Turkey.
Ross Brawn – Technical Director – Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: We're obviously disappointed that Rubens got caught out at the beginning of the race. I'm not quite sure what happened but we had to change a front wing. By then he had compromised his strategy, making life very difficult. Michael had a pretty good race and I don't think there's much more we could have done. Part way through the race it became clear we were going to have to manage the situation. At first we pushed as hard as we could but we knew that wasn't going to succeed so we changed our approach and decided to manage the situation to ensure we didn't become vulnerable towards the end of the race. The Bridgestone tyres held up quite well. I think the strategy we had today was good but I'm not sure how we could have beaten Kimi as he was so quick. It's progress for us and if we can keep making more progress like that then we should be proud of ourselves at the end of the year.