Italy: Bridgestone returned with a vengeance

By Phil Huff (14/09/2003)
September 14 2003

Bridgestone returned with a vengeance at Monza today after rising to the challenge of putting its teams back in the 2003 championship fight.

Throughout the weekend the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team has been at the forefront of the competition and the team's hard work finally paid off with a resounding and thrilling victory and third place podium for drivers Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. Schumacher consequently retains and stretches his drivers' championship lead. To back it up, of thirteen race finishers, no fewer than eight were Bridgestone runners, with Lucky Strike BAR Honda's Jacque Villeneuve scoring three points after a strong and consistent race by the Canadian. Sauber Petronas' Nick Heidfeld and Jordan Ford's Giancarlo Fisichella also crossed the line in the top ten.

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager for Bridgestone Motorsport, said "That was a really tough race today but it was great to see Michael take the victory and Rubens cross the line in third. Today's results prove our excellent tyre performance here which was good to see - Michael was the fastest man on the track out there today. Furthermore, not only was it a strong performance by the Ferrari drivers but also by BAR Honda's Jacques Villeneuve, the two Saubers and Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella - they raced strongly even though there were not enough points for everyone. All in all we have worked really hard over the past two weeks with the Bridgestone teams and credit must go to them and our tyre engineers and fitters. The title race is very close still so we must continue that hard work, keep fighting hard and make sure we perform like we did today!"

Ross Brawn, Technical Director at Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, commented "Well, what a wonderful day, a great day in fact and a great drive by both drivers. The cars were good, the Bridgestones were good and everything just came together today. Ferrari showed they never lie down. We've had a few races where we haven't really been competitive but today we were certainly competitive!"

Geoff Willis, Technical Director at Lucky Strike BAR Honda, added "A great day for the Bridgestone runners, the tyres held up very well for us. We got a good start and Jacques was consistent all the way through the race giving us three points and it was just a shame Jenson didn't finish. As far as tyres are concerned we had a pretty good weekend. We made progress last week at the Monza test, which was very important. And for Monza certainly we made a big improvement. The pressure is still on us for the rest of the season so we'll take this one as a good sign of improvement and we must work hard at the test next week."