11/06/2006
NEWS STORY
Michael Schumacher ran a flawless race in this afternoon's 60-lap British Grand Prix but despite leap-frogging Kimi Raikkonen after some handy pitstop work from his Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team, the seven-time world champion had to settle for the second step of the podium behind Renault's Fernando Alonso. With his Bridgestone Potenza tyres Schumacher was the second fastest man on track today but his eight points will do little to dent the championship leader's points advantage. Schumacher's teammate, Felipe Massa, ran a solid race to take four points for his fifth place finish. WilliamsF1's Nico Rosberg was the next man up for Bridgestone in ninth place while Panasonic Toyota Racing's Jarno Trulli, who had started the race from the back of the grid, finished 11th. Yet again, Bridgestone's hopes for its other front runners were dashed when Toyota's Ralf Schumacher and WilliamsF1's Mark Webber came together on the first lap, ending their race. MF1 Racing and the Super Aguri F1 Team will be pleased meanwhile to have got all their drivers across the finishing line in what turned out to be a grueling race run in track temperatures of almost forty degrees Celsius. The Formula One paddock now turns its sights towards the Canadian and US Grands Prix which will run back-to-back in a fortnight's time.
Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport: "We saw some strong performances today from the Bridgestone cars but it wasn't quite enough and we shall need to look at how we can help our teams become even stronger for the remainder of the season. However, second and fifth place finishes for Ferrari was excellent and we were pleased with the strong, consistent performance of the Bridgestone tyres in such tough conditions. Some of our teams could perhaps have gone softer even on their tyre choice this weekend. However, Silverstone is a high speed circuit and today's track temperature reached an unusual 39 degrees Celsius so we were pleased to see that the tyres looked in good shape still after the race. We will now focus our efforts on the Canadian and US races where we expect the Bridgestone shod teams have a good chance of building up their point scores."
Ross Brawn, Technical Director – Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: "Obviously two points in the wrong direction but it could have been a lot worse. We were pleased with the way the race went. We knew that Raikkonen would be difficult to get. We tried to get him at the first stop and finished the job in the second stop. The car was good today and the tyres very consistent but we paid the price for qualifying and the race was difficult from there on in."
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