Bridgestone wet tyre rethink still possible

Although the Japanese tyre manufacturer's intermediate tyres proved perfectly suited to the damp but drying conditions in China on Sunday, the company's poor performance in qualifying continues to leave them uneasy.

Michael Schumacher only just scraped through to the top 10 in qualifying as rival Michelin's tyres proved best in the wet conditions experienced on Saturday.

And with rain a distinct possibility at either of the final two races in Japan or Brazil, that qualifying display proved a wake-up call to Bridgestone about improving their rain tyres.

Bridgestone's technical manager Hisao Suganuma said: "We have to think about this race result and analyse in a proper way what happened this weekend. Then we are going to make a decision about what we can do for next week's event in Suzuka.

"At the moment we don't know what we are going to do, or if we need to make a change."

With Ferrari insiders revealing that the team had feared not scoring any points in the race if conditions had been similar to qualifying, Suganuma admitted that their optimism only grew when the Sunday morning rain stopped two hours before the start.

"I must say I am happy to see the race result, whereas after qualifying I was really depressed," he said. "Even on race morning when I looked outside and saw the rain falling, I thought it would not be very nice for us.

"But after the rain stopped at 12pm I could also feel some breeze with the wind blowing, so maybe the track would be getting drier during the race period. That meant we could pick up some better performance compared to qualifying, and it was a much better situation than yesterday."

Bridgestone's wet tyres appear to have the edge on a damp but drying track, whereas Michelin's wets are superior when the circuit is soaked - and they are more versatile for changing conditions.