Canadian GP: Williams Friday practice notes

The BMW WilliamsF1 Team had a difficult start to the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, with Ralf Schumacher being hampered by brake problems and Juan Pablo Montoya missing half of the second session due to a fuel leak.

Ralf Schumacher:

"I must admit I wasn't expecting such a Friday at all. Both of my practice sessions were hampered by several problems, not only was I not happy with the brakes, but also making the tyre choice and finding the right set-up have been very difficult. There's still quite a lot of work ahead of us."

Juan Pablo Montoya:

"This was obviously not the ideal way to start a race weekend. I only managed to complete six laps in the second Free Practice session, which meant I couldn't work a lot on my car. Even if I had very little running in the afternoon, I can say that the balance had improved from the morning session, but there is obviously much more work to do. I am sure we'll manage to catch up tomorrow morning and hopefully get in good shape for qualifying."

Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1):

"Obviously today was not a very good day for us as we did not go through our programme as we would have liked. On Juan's car we had a fuel leak, and on Ralf's car we were struggling with the brakes. But we will work tonight with the data, make our tyre choice and will continue with the race set-up work tomorrow morning."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):

"In today's Free Practice, only the first session proved productive for our drivers. In the afternoon session Juan Pablo experienced a fuel leak which forced him back to the garage. It took so long to fix the problem that he could not go back on track. Ralf was complaining about some brake problems, which forced him off the ideal line several times. Because of all these reasons, a considerable part of the set-up work needs to be completed in Saturday's practice sessions."

Ralf Schumacher
Chassis: FW26 07
(Spare car FW26 03)
Practice session 1: 9th, 1:15.948
Practice session 2: 14th, 1:15.803

Juan Pablo Montoya
Chassis: FW26 06
Practice session 1: 8th, 1:15.928
Practice session 2: 20th, 1.16.564

-williams-