Australian GP: Williams Sunday qualifying notes

Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld will start from 3rd and 7th grid positions respectively for today's Australian Grand Prix, the first race of the 2005 FIA F1 World Championship. This means the team managed to place one car on the second row for the season's opener, with Mark Webber even setting the fastest time today in the second qualifying session.

The grid positions came out of the new qualifying format, which involves the aggregation of the times from Saturday's first session and Sunday morning's second and final session.

Mark Webber:

"Starting my first race for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team from the second row is great. I went out under fortunate conditions yesterday, for my first qualifying, and that played an important role in today's result. The balance of my car was pretty good today and our aero package seems ok. Also, the track improved considerably throughout the session, which helped. Still, it will be a long race this afternoon and we will learn a lot, especially about tyres."

Nick Heidfeld:

"I had quite a good lap, today, it was good fun. It was quite difficult to go out this morning with a completely different fuel load and under weather and track conditions very different from yesterday. Both Mark and myself are in good grid positions. Now I am looking forward to the race."

Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1):

"The qualifying brought nothing different to what we expected in terms of positions with Mark staying third and Nick remaining seventh. Mark did the fastest lap time of this session, which was an impressive effort. But the race is now the most important thing and we are looking forward to a long and interesting Grand Prix."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):

"Unlike yesterday's first qualifying session the second qualifying ended with no big surprises - regarding the first 15 positions. Today Mark achieved the fastest lap and remained third on the grid and Nick did not have a problem to defend his seventh position. We should be well prepared for the race."

-williams-