Bridgestone teams have productive day

Conditions on day one of the German Grand Prix weekend were hot and humid today with a light rain shower affecting the start of the afternoon practice session. The Bridgestone shod teams however had to make the most of the conditions with both WilliamsF1 and MF1 Racing using their Friday test drivers to conduct most of their teams’ running.

Williams’ Alex Wurz was the fastest of the Bridgestone runners today with a time of 1m16.349s set in the first session while Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s Michael Schumacher was fastest of the Bridgestone runners in the second session once the track had dried up. Super Aguri F1 meanwhile debuted their new SA06 with Japanese drivers Takuma Sato and Sakon Yamamoto behind the wheel. Hockenheim can be a tough circuit for tyres with its combination of high and low speed sections requiring the tyres to provide good rear grip and high speed performance. Final tyre choices will be made ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying.

Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager, said: “The Hockenheim circuit was green this morning but developed quickly during the first practice session. Several third car drivers went out and started doing the initial car set-up running and comparing their two specifications of tyres. The second practice session however, started with light rain which obviously affected track conditions. Alex Wurz did several laps with the Bridgestone wet weather tyre and we were pleased to see the consistency of the tyre’s performance. The track did soon dry up, and although it gave teams plenty of opportunity to try their two dry tyre specifications, some chose only to run one spec this afternoon.

We observed quite a high level of graining on the front left tyres today but we shall evaluate the situation closely with the teams to see if this is likely to reduce over the weekend as the track rubbers in. We shall also need to take note of the weather forecast as it is possible we shall experience showers again. Overall, it was a productive day which showed encouraging signs of high performance levels but we will discuss the situation tonight and again tomorrow with our teams.”