British GP: Williams Friday notes

Today's Free Practice session for the 2002 British Grand Prix was hampered by rain, which prevented the BMW WilliamsF1 Team from carrying out the usual Friday preparation work, such as tyre evaluation. At the Silverstone circuit, Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher were 4th and 11th respectively.

Juan Pablo Montoya

"It went pretty well, especially after the start we had this morning with an engine failure, which allowed me to get only 5 laps in during the first session. Then we worked mainly on the wet tyres and the wet set up. We normally seem to struggle in the wet but today was quite encouraging. We've done a lot of work and I am pretty happy about it."

Ralf Schumacher

"We had very difficult conditions today with a wet and variable track. It was really slippery and I spun a few times, although without any consequences. Of course we still haven't chosen our tyres and have a lot of work ahead of us in this respect. Also from an aerodynamic point of view, we couldn't make any informed decision under such conditions."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1)

"We had a difficult start. The engineers worked with the data over the break and the mechanics did a good job with the engine change on Juan's car. The afternoon was a lot more productive as we managed a number of system checks on the new bodywork we have here. So we'll be confident with it come the race on Sunday."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director)

"Very early in the first hour Juan had an engine problem. As the engine continued running for quite a while after the problem appeared, we will not be able to find out the reason for the failure here at the race track. The engine is going to be taken to Munich today to be examined. It has been a while since we have run under wet conditions and therefore today's focus had to be on set-up and tyre work."

-Williams-