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Bridgestone

18 June 2004 USA Grand Prix – Free Practices 1&2

Bridgestone and Rubens set the pace in Indianapolis

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s Rubens Barrichello was on top form at the 4.192km Indianapolis Motor Speedway today, setting the pace in both practice sessions. The Brazilian, who currently lies in overall second place in the drivers’ standings, was over six tenths of a second quicker than his nearest rival, Anthony Davidson. His teammate Michael Schumacher was not far behind and like the other drivers in the field concentrated on evaluating his two tyre specifications. Sauber Petronas’ Giancarlo Fisichella continued to impress today as he and teammate Felipe Massa got to grips with the Indianapolis circuit.Times continued to improve over the day on a track well known for its tendency to keep evolving as more laps are completed. Bridgestone’s teams will now spend this evening making their final choice

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of tyre ahead of tomorrow’s 9am deadline.

Bridgestone Results: 1st Practice: 1st R Barrichello 1:11.354, 2nd M Schumacher 1:11.619, 8th G Fisichella 1:12.575, 14th F Massa 1:13.371, 20th T Glock 1:15.017, 21st N Heidfeld 1:15.020, 22nd B Leinders 1:15.028, 23rd G Pantano 1:15.260, 24th G Bruni 1:15.468, 25th Z Baumgartner 1:17.051 2nd Practice: 1st R Barrichello 1:10.365, 4th M Schumacher 1:11.036, 13th G Fisichella 1:12.537, 17th F Massa 1:13.196, 18th Z Baumgartner 1:13.384, 19th T Glock 1:13.446, 21st N Heidfeld 1:13.961, 22nd G Pantano 1:14.407, 23rd B Leinders 1:14.409, 24th G Bruni 1:14.428

Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager, said:
“Today’s conditions have been quite hot and the track green to start with. The grip level of the track was relatively low in first practice but as time progressed, conditions improved. In fact, they continued to improve throughout the two sessions. We saw a lot of cars sliding today and this can increase the temperatures of the tyres but as the race weekend progresses, we expect conditions to improve further and the cars shouldn’t slide as much. That’s when we will see the real competitiveness of the Bridgestone tyres.”

The Teams Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, said:
“We have had two good practice sessions today and no problems with the cars. We’ve done all the necessary work on the Bridgestone tyres and it looks like we may have a fast first lap performance from them this weekend which is very encouraging for qualifying. We have a little bit of work to do on the balance and Michael seems to be a bit behind Rubens at the moment but we just need to understand why. Rubens was very quick today which bodes well for tomorrow.”

Temperatures Ambient Track Weather AM – Practice 27-29C 37-41C Sunny/Scattered clouds PM – Practice 28-32-30C 38-43-42C Sunny/Scattered clouds

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