2nd place for Bridgestone and Schumi

Bridgestone shod Michael Schumacher battled long and hard in this afternoon’s 70-lap Canadian Grand Prix, at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, to take a well earned second place podium behind Renault’s Fernando Alonso.

Schumacher lost time in the early stages of the race in traffic but his persistence paid off when, in the final laps, he was able to take advantage of a Safety Car period. He promptly hunted down McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen, taking second place on the penultimate lap and eight points towards his championship points tally. He now lies 25 points adrift of championship leader Alonso. Ferrari remains second in the constructors’ championship with 87 points after Felipe Massa took points for a fifth place finish.

Next up for Bridgestone was Panasonic Toyota Racing’s Jarno Trulli, who takes his first points of the season for sixth. The WilliamsF1 drivers, meanwhile, had a frustrating end to their weekend. Mark Webber crossed the line in12th place while Nico Rosberg, who started fourth on the grid, crashed out on the first lap after contact with another driver.

It was also an eventful race for MF1 Racing’s Tiago Monteiro and Christijan Albers, with only Monteiro making the finish. Neither of the Super Aguri F1 drivers crossed the finish line although Takuma Sato was classified 15th after unluckily clipping the wall on the final lap. The Formula One paddock now heads straight to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for next weekend’s U.S.A. Grand Prix.

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport: “Today’s race was a tough one with track temperatures of 42 degrees Celsius and changing conditions as the race progressed. Ferrari had a strong race and Michael [Schumacher], who never gave up, was rewarded with a second place podium. The tyre choice of the individual Bridgestone runners was a factor this weekend but we are generally positive about today’s result and in the final laps of the race we were able to see the strengths of the Bridgestone tyres. We now have some tough races ahead so we will keep pushing our tyre development programme forward with a view to helping our teams make the most of their car-tyre packages.”

Bridgestone Team News
Ross Brawn, Technical Director – Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: “Today was about minimizing the damage. We had a poor start and we had to recover from that. We weren’t up to our proper pace behind Jarno [Trulli] and really we were saved by the safety car at the end. The Bridgestone tyres worked well – as we expected - but the package just wasn’t quite quick enough today. We’re going to have to find that little extra performance from somewhere if we’re going to be in this championship. It’s a big challenge for everyone but we won’t stop trying.”