Good day for Ferrari at Barcelona
After his first visit to the Grand Prix podium last Sunday at the Nürburgring, Felipe Massa clocked the fastest time during the first free practice session this morning. Michael Schumacher clocked the second time. This afternoon, more and more drivers came out on track and Schumi clocked the 6th time and Massa the 17th.
Jean Todt "It's always the same on Friday, a day dedicated mainly to the comparison between the two types of tyre that Bridgestone has put at our disposal. From what we could see, the Japanese firm has done a good job, which should allow us to be competitive for the rest of the weekend. Even though both drivers had run here a few weeks ago, we worked on fine tuning the set-up of the car, adapting it to the current track conditions. We got a lot of interesting data which is now being studied by the engineers before making the tyre choice and deciding on settings."
Michael Schumacher "I am very happy with the work we have done today, centred on the Bridgestone tyres and on adapting the 248 F1 to the track conditions. Compared with the last time we were here we have a few updates on the car and steps forward with the tyres. I think we can be competitive, even though we have yet to go into detail on the data. There are a lot of factors to consider. Looking at the times this morning we were quick and the good thing is that this afternoon, over a longer distance we were both quick and consistent, so the situation looks pretty good."
Felipe Massa "This weekend has got off on the right foot. The day went very well and we worked almost exclusively on the Bridgestone tyres, obviously looking towards the race. Michael and I split the work load, using different types of tyre. Today I was not trying to do a time but just wanted to understand how the tyres performed over a long run. I am very satisfied with the 248 F1 and what we achieved today."
Ross Brawn "It was a good day and both drivers did a good job, getting through everything on their programmes. We got a whole heap of data, also doing some quite long runs on both types of Bridgestone tyre we have here. The balance of the cars seems quite good and the engineers only made minor adjustments."