Belgian GP Williams race notes

The BMW WilliamsF1 Team achieved today their second podium of this season and for the third time finished with both of its cars in the championship points positions: Ralf Schumacher scored a consistent and strong third place and Jenson Button was fifth.

Ralf Schumacher:
"I am more than happy! The team was strong for the whole weekend and my car was always feeling fine. We are definitely establishing ourselves as the third team in the championship and this must be our target for the rest of the races. We were expecting the rain and we were ready for it. We thought we would be among the fastest here in Spa but Mika Hakkinen was outstandingly quick!"

Jenson Button:
"I could have achieved more today. Of course I’m a bit disappointed to finish fifth having started from the third position. Anyway it’s good to have scored some more points. Unfortunately at the beginning it took me too much time to overtake Trulli. After the contact with Trulli’s Jordan car the steering wheel was quite heavy. In the dry conditions the car wasn’t as good as it was in the wet at the start and I suffered some oversteer."

Frank Williams:
"Naturally the whole team is delighted. We are now seeing the results of very hard work, which is always exploited superbly well by both drivers."

Patrick Head:
"This was a very exciting race. It is great to be on the podium again with Ralf for the second time after this year’s season’s opener in Melbourne. Jenson’s little contretemps with Trulli certainly ended Trulli’s race, it also took Jenson away from a chance of a podium. I must congratulate BMW for preparing not only powerful but also tough engines. We feel that we are making some progress."

Gerhard Berger:
"This is a much bigger birthday cake than I expected. We achieved this result in a great race and through our own strengths. Our achievements have been good here, particularly the quality of our performance and the reliability from our new engine specifications. This is a very big step towards consolidating our third position in the constructors’ championship. It happens very rarely that after a race you sit down in peace and you realise that you really don’t know what you could have done better. "