22/04/2006
NEWS STORY
Seven time world champion Michael Schumacher claimed an historic pole position today on his Bridgestone Potenza Formula One tyres as his 66th career pole took him one pole ahead of legendary former world champion Ayrton Senna.
It was also the 92nd pole position taken by a Bridgestone driver since entering in 1997 and it was made all the more poignant having been taken at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, in front of the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team's home crowd. For Bridgestone's teams on the whole it was a successful afternoon with five Bridgestone runners making it through to the top ten qualifying shoot out. Felipe Massa lines up on the second row of the grid, in fourth place, while Panasonic Toyota Racing's Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli qualified in sixth and ninth positions respectively. WilliamsF1's Mark Webber claimed the tenth spot while Nico Rosberg qualified 13th. Having looked to be running well earlier in the weekend, MF1 Racing is looking to overcome its technical difficulties ahead of tomorrow's race.
Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager - Bridgestone Motorsport: Congratulations to Michael on taking pole here in Italy and at the same time making history with the highest number of pole positions taken by a Formula One driver. It was quite special. However, I am also very pleased to have seen five Bridgestone drivers in the final phase of qualifying this afternoon. The Bridgestone runners have been looking strong this weekend both in race trim in the practice sessions and in qualifying. We have seen some competitive lap times – a good reflection on the competitive performance of the Bridgestone tyres here this weekend. Furthermore, traffic caught a couple of the drivers out in qualifying so there was the potential to have seen more of our runners even further up the grid. Overall however, I'm happy with today's performance and am looking forward to tomorrow's race.
Ross Brawn, Technical Director – Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: We're very pleased with today's results. Everything went very well. The programme we had was good and the car has been working well all weekend. The Bridgestone tyres have been particularly good and we should be strong in the race tomorrow. I was very impressed with Michael's time but unfortunately for Felipe, who got caught in traffic, he didn't really get a clear lap but he did a pretty good job nevertheless. We're as optimistic as we can be for tomorrow's race.
Dieter Gass, Chief Engineer Race and Test – Panasonic Toyota Racing: We are happy with the Bridgestone tyres and the choice we've made. We're confident that we have a very good race tyre. The performance and grip level is quite okay and we are happy with Ralf's qualifying position, where he is very close to fourth place. Still, being sixth is a good performance.