24/06/2006
NEWS STORY
Three Bridgestone shod runners made it into the top six in this afternoon's Canadian Grand Prix qualifying session with Panasonic Toyota Racing's Jarno Trulli heading the Bridgestone challenge from the second row of the grid. Unfortunately his teammate, Ralf Schumacher, didn't get through to the top ten. The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro pairing of Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa looked strong throughout qualifying but didn't quite make it onto the front rows, qualifying in fifth and tenth places respectively. WilliamsF1's young star, Nico Rosberg, was on form, setting the sixth fastest time of the final session, giving him a good fighting chance for tomorrow's 70-lap race. Unfortunately his teammate, Mark Webber, qualified an unusual 17th, giving him a tough challenge tomorrow. MF1 Racing's Tiago Monteiro out-qualified his teammate Christijan Albers for 19th place while Super Aguri's Takuma Sato pipped his teammate, Franck Montagny, for 21st.
Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager - Bridgestone Motorsport: Track conditions in free practice three were reasonable today, enabling the teams to complete their tyre comparisons ahead of making their final tyre specification decisions. Jarno did a good job in qualifying this afternoon, getting onto the second row of the grid with the fourth fastest time, while Michael was fifth and Nico sixth. That means there are three Bridgestone shod cars in the top six which is a pretty good result. We are expecting hot conditions tomorrow which will be tough on the tyres but we are confident of the consistency of their performance and we're looking forward to seeing how they perform in the race. Mark Webber was unlucky not to qualify higher but we expect him and Ralf Schumacher to be stronger in the race tomorrow.
Ross Brawn, Technical Director – Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: Obviously a disappointing qualifying session for us. We didn't seem to have the qualifying lap that the other Bridgestone runners did. However, the car seems quite good and competitive. We expect the tyres will be consistent in the race and we'll develop our strategy to suit them. We'll see what happens in the race tomorrow.
Pascal Vasselon, Senior General Manager Chassis – Panasonic Toyota Racing: Once again it was a difficult decision over which tyre to choose but we are happy that Jarno took our best qualifying position of the year today. So far there is no doubt that we have competitive tyres and we are really looking forward to tomorrow. At the moment there is a tiny chance of rain but we expect another hot day and those conditions should suit us.
To check out our Canada qualifying picture gallery, click here