Bridgestone teams strong in opening practice

The British Grand Prix weekend got off to an uncharacteristically hot start today with Bridgestone's five teams experiencing air temperatures of up to 27 degrees Celsius as they completed their day's running.

As has become the regular pattern of Fridays this year, it was those teams with Friday test drivers who completed the most running in the first of the two hour long practice sessions. WilliamsF1 's Alex Wurz set the fastest time in the morning session with Panasonic Toyota Racing's Jarno Trulli looking competitive in both sessions in the TF106B. Ferrari's Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa were also within the top eight drivers in both sessions.

MF1 Racing, meanwhile, made best use of their test driver as did the Super Aguri F1 Team who ran Japanese driver Sakon Yamamoto for the first time in his new third driver role. Final tyre decisions will be made prior to tomorrow's qualifying session and track and weather conditions will play an important role in those final choices.

Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager, said: "The track was very green this morning and we have subsequently seen slower lap times so far than those from our last test here in April. However, the track is developing all the time and the Bridgestone shod teams were able to compare their hard and soft specifications today. It is by no means a clear choice and final specification choices will be made depending on how the track and weather conditions develop. Naturally at the moment the softer specs have more grip than the hard but we shall monitor the lap times and wear rates in tomorrow's final practice session before giving our teams our advice ahead of the qualifying session. Judging from today's times though it does look as if we could have a few strong Bridgestone contenders this weekend which is always encouraging."