The first round of the European season started with a sunny but windy day’s running at the Enzo e Dino Ferrari Circuit in Imola. Bridgestone’s runners got plenty of track time and after the last round in Bahrain, Ferrari in particular made the most of having extra engine mileage to use up to assess the track and the Bridgestone tyres. Schumacher set the fourth and sixth fastest times of the two respective practice sessions while Barrichello got to grips with the set up of the F2005. Minardi meanwhile concentrated on learning all about their new challenger which debuts at San Marino and Jordan’s Narain Karthikeyan had a steady day’s running. Also making their debut today were the Bridgestone equipped GP2 teams with Nicolas Lapierre taking the honour of setting the pole time for tomorrow’s inaugural GP2 race.

Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager, said: “The track was quite green this morning and very slippery but that didn’t stop the cars going out. Michael set some good lap times this morning and although Rubens had a problem he managed to get some good running this afternoon and work on refining his set-up. Jordan and Minardi have also been busy collecting tyre data, with today being particularly important for Minardi who are debuting their new car this weekend. So overall, I’m happy with the way the tyres have performed at Imola and they have shown good balance under braking.”

The Teams
Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, said: “We’ve had a very useful day because we had a lot of mileage left over from Bahrain so we did as many laps as we could do today. It should give a good picture for the engineers who are working on setup. It’s a classic situation where the softer tyre is quicker on the first lap but the harder tyre is not so quick on the first lap but more consistent. The track was a bit green early on but it rubbered in quite well and there’s no rain forecast for tonight or tomorrow night so that’s another factor to take into account. We’ll be studying the data very carefully tonight before making our decision because it’s not an obvious choice yet. We’re generally pleased with the performance of the car and we’ll be doing lots more laps in the morning.”

2005 San Marino Grand Prix - Main Page
2005 San Marino Grand Prix - Team and Driver Friday Practice Reports Page

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