Bridgestone upbeat on British GP chances

Schumacher's best lap of 1:13.471, eclipsed Jenson Button's benchmark time from April of 1:13.552, and suggested that the Japanese tyre company had made a step forward since they were beaten by Michelin at last month's Spanish Grand Prix.

With Schumacher in need of a good result to try and close down the gap in the drivers' championship to Fernando Alonso, Bridgestone are feeling bullish about their chances for next weekend's race at Silverstone.

The tyre company's technical manager Hisao Suganuma told autosport.com that a great deal of progress had been made since the recent pre-British Grand Prix test in April, which had been dominated by the Michelin teams.

"We have developed even further from the test at Silverstone and it seems the tyres are fine," said Suganuma. "Ferrari, Toyota and Williams will do a long run today to decide on the specifications, but so far we are quite happy with them.

"It is not anything completely new from the last test, but just part of the development process and we have come up with a good combination of construction and compound.

"I know there was no Ferrari and no Toyota at the last Silverstone test, but the Barcelona track now has very similar characteristics to that of Silverstone anyway, so we can work out a good solution from this test."