Britain: Bridgestone hit 75

By Phil Huff (20/07/2003)
July 20 2003

Bridgestone's Potenza tyres returned once again to the top of the grid yesterday when Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's Rubens Barrichello put his Ferrari F2003-GA on pole, also giving Bridgestone its 75th pole position since entering Formula One in 1997.

Barrichello's teammate and current championship leader Michael Schumacher would almost certainly have joined him on the first row had he not run wide. He lines up a respectable fifth. However, coupled with the ninth place performance of fellow Bridgestone runner Lucky Strike BAR Honda's Jacques Villeneuve, this afternoon saw an encouraging performance for Bridgestone and its teams.

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport: "I'm delighted to see Rubens on pole today especially as he went out second in the running order. Michael lost a few tenths of a second when he ran wide which was a shame because he and Rubens were very close. But fifth isn't a bad position by any means. I was pleased to see today's strong and encouraging performance especially after last week's intensive test programme. We also saw an encouraging performance from Jacques Villeneuve today. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, it should be a good battle!"

Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: "I think Rubens had the better half of the session today. He did a fantastic lap and a great job. I think we've made progress with the car and the tyres and that showed today. Although there is still a lot of work to do, I think we've got a much stronger opportunity to win tomorrow than we had in the last couple of races."