Bridgestone's Italian Grand Prix challenge started today in warm and humid conditions at the Italian 5.793km Monza circuit with Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa and WilliamsF1's Friday test driver Alex Wurz setting the fastest times of the Bridgestone runners.

Only half the field clocked timed laps in the morning's first practice with second practice being a more productive session as the teams worked on their car set-ups and tyre choices. Tyre choice is particularly important this weekend. Not only is Monza the fastest track on the 18-race calendar, putting high loads through the tyres but its recent partial re-surfacing has meant that teams and tyre manufacturers are still gathering data on the new track surface.

Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager, said: "Grip levels in this morning's practice session were generally not as good as those seen in last week's test but they are steadily improving. Alex Wurz managed to conduct some informative tyre comparison work and after initial analysis of the tyres indications are that both specifications could be used in the race this weekend. A lot will depend on how grip levels change and the consistency of the different tyre specifications. Not all the Bridgestone teams, however, compared their two specifications today so we are still keeping an open mind before making the final tyre choice decisions with our teams."