24/05/2008
NEWS STORY
Felipe Massa has set pole position on Bridgestone's super soft compound Potenza on the streets of Monte Carlo for the sixth round of the FIA Formula One World Championship, the Monaco Grand Prix. This was the 120th pole position to have been achieved in Formula One on Bridgestone tyres since the first at the 1998 Australian Grand Prix.
On a day of mixed weather conditions, Massa went fastest with a time of 1min 15.787secs, and will be joined on the front row for tomorrow's race by team-mate Kimi Raikkonen who set a time almost three hundredths slower than Massa. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen will line up on the second row, with Hamilton setting the faster time.
Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg will start on the third row, whilst Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli will start from the fourth. Red Bull Racing duo Mark Webber and David Coulthard were the final two drivers to qualify in the top ten, although Coulthard did not run in Q3 due to damage sustained to his car in Q2.
In the morning practice session Heikki Kovalainen went fastest, with a time of 1min 16.567secs set on the soft compound. The session was declared wet and many drivers started the session using Bridgestone's wet Potenza tyres. The circuit was drying for the first half of running, but it started to rain meaning that the wet and extreme wet tyres were used by some drivers. Today's fastest lap time, a 1min 15.110secs, was set by Massa in Q2 using the super soft compound.
Hirohide Hamashima - Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development: Today was difficult for teams, drivers and Bridgestone as we had mixed weather conditions, although this has given us data for a variety of possible situations for tomorrow's race. In the morning, teams were able to run with the wet tyre, which is a different compound from that we have used elsewhere. Competitors could also confirm extreme wet tyre performance. The track surface is still relatively green here and there is not as much rubber down as we would have seen if there had only been dry running. Abrasion was worse than we saw on Thursday, and we are now analysing the wear rate, however initial predictions are that this will not be a problem for the race. Congratulations to Massa on taking his second consecutive pole position this season. On this circuit qualifying position and initial fuel load is very important, and I think we will see an exciting race.