Australian GP Williams qualfying notes

Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya will start from 5th and 11th positions respectively for the first race of the 2001 season.

"After yesterday's performance it went much better than expected today. A big compliment must go to BMW: The new engine is really strong. Furthermore we have managed to match the set-up and the tyres. The Michelin tyres worked much better than yesterday and it also helped that the grip level of the track improved remarkably from Friday. I could imagine that we might even look a little bit better tomorrow."

Juan Pablo Montoya
"I am very disappointed with my last run. The car was getting better and better and there was a lot of room to go much faster as I was taking it quite carefully in the early runs. On my last trial the car felt pretty good in the first three corners and I was sure I was going to have a very good lap and suddenly, at the exit of turn four I had a problem with Bernoldi. I got wide and I thought he was going to let me by but when I went to turn he just turned in front of me. Let's see what happens tomorrow in the race, anyway."

Patrick Head (Technical Director WilliamsF1)
"Very impressive qualifying session from Ralf. He just got stronger and stronger with each run. Encouraging for the team and very good for Michelin to be in this shape on their return to Grand Prix racing. A very impressive performance from the BMW engine however we can see from the straight line speeds that probably we haven't got enough downforce on the car yet. Juan's practice didn't quite come together in the same way as it did for Ralf and he had traffic problems - the usual problem of qualifying - but I am sure he can race strongly tomorrow."

Dr Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director) "This is a superb start to the new season. We have realised the increase in engine power that we wanted to achieve and until now we also have had no technical problems with the new engines. Ralf took full advantage of the car's potential. For him everything came together at the right time. Unfortunately, Juan Pablo had another car in his way on his last and decisive lap. We are not only the best positioned team of those using Michelin tyres but we are also the only Michelin team having a car in the top ten."

-BMW/Williams