By Phil Huff (27/07/2003)
July 27 2003

A decisive victory for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's Rubens Barrichello at the British Grand Prix should leave no-one in doubt about the strength and determination of the Ferrari-Bridgestone package this afternoon. Poleman Barrichello was simply the class of the field despite losing places at the start, producing a stunning display of skill as he consistently overtook his way into the lead. The Brazilian really set the field alight with his pace, setting fastest times several laps in succession. Barrichello's ten points are a vital boost both to his and Ferrari's points tally and he has now closed the gap on fourth place to lie just four points behind in fifth overall. Coupled with five points for teammate Michael Schumacher's fourth place finish, Ferrari has stretched its lead in the Constructors' championship to ten points over nearest rivals BMW Williams.

In a thrilling race which saw the deployment of the safety car twice, initially for the removal of car debris and secondly for the removal of a stray spectator, Bridgestone's teams performed encouragingly well with Lucky Strike BAR Honda's Jenson Button and Jacques Villeneuve both joining the Ferrari drivers in the top ten. In fact all but one Bridgestone car finished this afternoon's gruelling 60 lap race which took place in overcast but dry conditions. It seems the battle is on for the final dash to the end of the season.

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager at Bridgestone Motorsport, said "A great victory for Rubens, we are very pleased for him. He was simply flying today, setting fastest lap after fastest lap - a brilliant drive. And it wasn't just outright speed either. Our tyres also performed very consistently today which I was pleased to see, and not just from the Ferraris. The BAR cars were running well too, producing lap times very close to those of the leaders. Michael had a tough race but to come back to finish fourth was extremely well done. I'm quite satisfied with our tyre performance here at this circuit as it means all the hard work we have done very recently has begun to pay off. This is just the start of our fight back and we intend to keep the momentum up for the rest of the season."

Ross Brawn, Technical Director at Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, added "That was a great and very important race. It brought back fond memories of last year! We had a good package today with the car and the tyres. Bridgestone did a great job this weekend and they've got some more developments which we'll see over the next couple of races."