Bridgestone take first 'real' F1 win since 04.

Bridgestone finally broke Michelin's stranglehold on F1 at the San Marino GP on Sunday, when Michael Schumacher took the victory.

It was their first in the sport since the 'unique' US GP last season, when none of the Michelin shod-cars actually competed! Indeed to find Bridgestone's last 'real' win in F1 you have to go back to 2004, when Schumi put them and Ferrari on the top step at the penultimate race of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix. Unsurprisingly then Bridgestone were extremely happy with the result, although they are now determined to remain focused to keep the momentum going.

"I'm delighted to see a Bridgestone driver back on the top step of the podium," said Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone's technical manager. "It was a tough race today but Michael managed to keep [Fernando] Alonso [and Renault and Michelin] behind to take the win. It has been some time since our last win.

"After all the hard work and effort our engineers and staff in Japan and the UK have put in over the last year and over the winter they deserve this win. However, we do not wish to get carried away. We need to keep focused on the job in hand. Our tyres have performed well in the weekend's practice sessions and qualifying and we saw some fast competitive lap times from several of our runners today. Three Bridgestone drivers finished in the top six. However, we learnt a lot from the race and we need to analyse a couple of areas of our tyre performance to see if we can improve even further. We need to keep pushing and working hard if our teams are to continue to get good results."

Michelin meanwhile while disappointed to see their 13 grand prix winning run come to an end, still had plenty to be satisfied about, as Alonso was just 2 seconds adrift at the finish, while Juan Montoya was third in his McLaren, to give them a 2-3 finish. Indeed they blamed the track for the fact they couldn't win, as it is not easy to pass at Imola.

"The tyres were incredibly well in terms of both pace and consistency," insisted Michelin F1 director, Nick Shorrock. "This was a very tight race - as we predicted it would be - and the outcome was always going to be settled by the manner in which the strategies played out.

"Fernando Alonso put on a tremendous charge during the second stint and was catching Michael Schumacher at about 1.5 seconds per lap. He gave his tyres a really hard time, but they stood up incredibly well in terms of both pace and consistency. It is disappointing not to have won a race for the first time this year, but from a technical perspective Michelin can take a great deal of satisfaction from this result. I believe we had the pace to win, but Imola is not a circuit that favours overtaking."

Renault's executive engineering director, Pat Symonds had only praise for Michelin and believes they will bounce back at the Nurburgring in two weeks time. He was also happy with the progress made by the French tyre firm in comparison to the rubber they provided at Imola in 2005.

"Our tyre performance was much closer to the kind of level we hope to achieve [this year]," he added. "This was a difficult circuit for Michelin last year, even though we won the race, but the company is very honest about recognising its problems and solves them very quickly - such are the pleasures of working with Michelin. Even if we did not repeat our 2005 victory this season, our tyre performance was much closer to the kind of level we hope to achieve.

"Two weeks from now, we fully expect the balance to swing back in our favour at the N?rburgring."