Tough qualifying for Bridgestone in China

After a damp morning session in which Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's Michael Schumacher topped the practice time sheets, this afternoon's rain hit qualifying session proved to be a difficult one for the Bridgestone runners. Michael Schumacher was the highest qualifier for Bridgestone, setting the sixth fastest time while his Brazilian team-mate, Felipe Massa, was thirteenth fastest. Massa, however, will be penalised for an engine change and will start from the rear of the grid. Next up for Bridgestone was the WilliamsF1 pair, who were 15th and 16th fastest. Changeable weather conditions are expected for tomorrow's 56-lap Chinese Grand Prix in which title front runners Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher will be battling for the championship lead.

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager - Bridgestone Motorsport, said: "Clearly it was a tough afternoon for the Bridgestone runners in the wet conditions. We have recently tried to improve our wet tyre performance, bringing a different tyre to that used in Hungary and although it was an improvement, it was evidently not enough. We need to improve our grip levels when there is water falling on track but things did improve as the track dried out. On the other hand, in the morning practice session, the teams were able to switch to our dry tyre quite early on, indicating that the tyre does have good performance in damp conditions. The forecast for tomorrow is for changeable weather so it is possible that our dry tyre's wider performance window could be beneficial for the Bridgestone teams."

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Ross Brawn, Technical Director - Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, said: "Obviously a difficult qualifying session today but Michael did a fantastic job. I think we have made progress since Hungary. We do still have some ground to make up in the wet but today's performance was an improvement. Michael seemed to be on top of the situation a bit more than Felipe and had his car a little better balanced. We saw in the dry conditions this morning that the car was very good and it is predicted to be drier tomorrow."