Austrian GP: Williams Friday qualifying notes

In today's First Qualifying session of what could well be the last Austrian Grand Prix weekend, Juan Pablo Montoya set the sixth fastest time for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team. After an excursion off the track, Ralf Schumacher will start tomorrow's Final Qualifying in a disadvantageous first place.

Juan Pablo Montoya:

"I had to abort my first run due to a red flag, but in spite of this, it seems like we have managed to get on top of the car and have figured it out a bit here -- we have re- discovered our feeling with the car, which is positive. The last few races it has been really hard for us but this session makes me think that things could go much better here. My qualifying lap was quite good even if had a bit too much understeer, but overall the car was easy to drive and I am pretty pleased with it."

Ralf Schumacher:

"During my qualifying lap the car oversteered going into turn three. I could not control it and I spun off the track. There is nothing else to say as it was a driver error. My first sector time wasn't too bad but this is irrelevant. Although I am disappointed and today's time sheet doesn't clearly show it, I hope we can position ourselves between Ferrari and McLaren. It should be an exciting weekend."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):

"Juan's car was not too badly balanced, even though there is still room for improvement. Ralf made a mistake into turn three, which leave us also with some work to do. But we are still optimistic for the weekend as the long run performance of our cars seems to be ok."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):

"In this morning's free practice, both the drivers completed their sessions without any problems, but in qualifying Ralf lost the car due to some oversteer. As a consequence he will start tomorrow's final qualifying first. Juan Pablo was expected to leave the garage after Ralf, but due to the red flag, he had to abort his lap and return to the pits and start again. Despite this, he managed to complete a clean lap and gain a good qualifying position for tomorrow. Both engines ran with no problems."

Juan Pablo Montoya: 6th
Chassis: FW25 06
Best time: 1.08,839 min

Ralf Schumacher: 20th
Chassis: FW25 05 (Spare car FW 04)
No time

-williams-