02/07/2006
NEWS STORY
Bridgestone shod Michael Schumacher, Felipe Massa and Jarno Trulli gave their teams and fans a US Grand Prix to remember this afternoon while Bridgestone is celebrating the seventh Indianapolis GP victory on its tyres in as many years. The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers took a dominant 1-2 podium result edging them closer to their rivals in the constructors' championship while Panasonic Toyota Racing took points for a fourth place finish. Once off the front row of the grid the Ferrari pair was unchallenged as they two-stopped their way to victory in front of the delighted US crowd. Trulli meanwhile made maximum use of the consistent performance of his Bridgestone tyres this weekend to one-stop his way from a pitlane start to fourth. His teammate, Ralf Schumacher, had also looked set for a top five finish before cruelly being sidelined by a mechanical problem. For the remaining Bridgestone runners it was unfortunately not a weekend to remember with only WilliamsF1's Nico Rosberg crossing the finish line just out of the points in ninth.
Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport: I'm delighted with today's result! This means a great deal to all the Bridgestone staff around the world and I must especially thank our tyre servicing and engineering staff both in the UK and in Japan. It was a very tough race with track temperatures of 49 degrees Celsius but the Bridgestone tyres performed just as they were supposed to, enabling Ferrari to take a 1-2 finish and Toyota's Jarno Trulli to take some valuable points. Bridgestone would have had four cars in the top five had Ralf Schumacher not had to retire shortly before the end - he was desperately unlucky. Nevertheless we had three cars in the top four, one of whom started the race from the pitlane. It was a clear indicator of the performance edge the Bridgestone shod cars had this year. We had no tyre problems during the race which was very satisfying, showing we could produce both a safe and high performing tyre. The Williams team will be disappointed I'm sure with their result but we will do our best to help them be competitive in the second half of the season. We now go into the hottest part of the European F1 season, which will be tough, so we want to make sure our tyres continue to have performance and durability for remainder of the races. But, I must say I am very satisfied with our tyre performance today.
Bridgestone Team News Ross Brawn, Technical Director – Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: The Bridgestone tyres were perfect today! We saw on Friday they would go well here. It turned out we were really quite dominant today and were able to have a smooth race. Everything worked really well: the tyres, the car, the drivers - they were all great. When all these factors come together you get the performance we had today. This result has helped to hold back the tide. We've had a few races which have gone the wrong way but things are coming back to us now. We just need to keep the momentum going.
Pascal Vasselon, Senior General Manager Chassis – Panasonic Toyota Racing: This was obviously a very strong race from Bridgestone, but that was no surprise because we knew the tyres were consistent. That's why we were able to go for a one-stop strategy with Jarno. Yesterday we also saw that the grip was good so it was no surprise that it was a very strong Bridgestone weekend.
To check out our United States GP picture gallery, click here