Belgian GP Williams Saturday notes

The BMW WilliamsF1 Team demonstrated perfect timing and driver performances as the track was drying out during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix. Juan Pablo Montoya claimed his second pole in Formula 1 and Ralf Schumacher starts from second spot on the grid. This is the second time the FW23s have been on the front row of the grid, the first being at the German Grand Prix.

Juan Pablo Montoya
"The team was brilliant, I think everybody did a fantastic job and the car is working very well on dry tyres. Yesterday we had a big struggle on the set-up, but I had a good think overnight and it really paid off. I went through two different sets of tyres - we did the first lap to get us on the grid - but we knew it was going to get dryer and dryer. We went out to get our time on dry tyres and it really worked. This is a track I know quite well and like."

Ralf Schumacher
"No doubt the team can be very satisfied with today's result. What to do was not really an easy decision to take. At the end of the day it didn't work too bad! It is always under these conditions that you need a bit of confidence that the car is going well, and you need to have a clean and good lap. The circuit conditions became fairly even by the end of the session. But while the main line on the straight was already dry, in some corners, especially in turns three and four, it was still wet."

Patrick Head, Technical Director
"It was a brilliant job today from the team and the drivers. No one could have done a better job with the information from the weather forecast to take the cars out at the right time. After our front row in Hockenheim it was another perfect effort."

Gerhard Berger, BMW Motorsport Director
"It was a typical Spa tyre gamble today. But under these changing conditions the timing of the team was perfect. We knew that we would have good chances under dry conditions, and both drivers have shown top performance in the very limited time they had at the end of the session. At the precise moment when the conditions were good enough for dry tyres, we were able to use the full potential of our package."

Chassis
Montoya: FW23-06
Schumacher: FW23-07
Spare (Schumacher): FW23-02