British GP: Williams race notes

Today's changeable weather conditions made for one of the most exciting British Grands Prix in recent history, and undoubtedly one of the most spectacular races of the 2002 season. After a strong qualifying performance yesterday and a good start to the race for both drivers, the BMW WilliamsF1 Team netted a podium finish with Juan Pablo Montoya in third place. Ralf Schumacher's race was compromised by a refuelling rig problem during a crucial pit stop, dropping him from fourth position to see him eventually finish in eighth place.

Juan Pablo Montoya:

"It was a crazy race because of the changing weather conditions. My start wasn't too bad and I could keep Michael Schumacher behind me for a while, but then he passed me and started to get away. Then the rain came and decided the race as we could not keep pace on our tyres. We have massively improved in the wet, but there is still work to do. I managed to catch up again when it dried, and it was very good to finish and collect some points for the team."

Ralf Schumacher:

"At the beginning in the rain, everything went quite well. We were clearly the best placed Michelin team, and I had a good chance to get some points. But then unfortunately we had a problem with my fuel rig again, like one month ago in Canada that was it for today, I am very disappointed."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):

"A good conclusion for Juan to what was a really difficult race. Juan did well to claim a podium position and the points to go with it in all of the changeable racing conditions. It was unfortunate that Ralf's race was compromised by a refuelling rig problem. I also made a mistake by calling the wrong type of tyre for his pitstop because of a lot of radio traffic."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):

"Third place was the maximum we could achieve today. It was not the first time that there have been have problems with the fuel rig, unfortunately this time it was us. In nearly every race, one team or another has problems with refuelling, so improvements are really required. Ralf lost fourth place because of this today. We had no problems with the engine but it could be seen that in the wet conditions that we are behind our competitors with our tyres. The race was a great show for the spectators and both our drivers showed a solid performance and made no mistakes in the tricky conditions."

Valencia Test: 9-12 July - Marc Gene / Monza Test: 9-12 July - Antonio Pizzonia

Juan Pablo Montoya: 3rd
Chassis: FW24 05
Fastest Lap: 1:25,469 on lap 50 (10th overall)

Ralf Schumacher: 8th
Chassis: FW24 06
Fastest Lap: 1:24,586 lap 58 (3rd overall)

-williams-