French GP Williams Friday notes

The BMW WilliamsF1 Team worked hard on getting the cars handling right on the Magny Cours track. A problem with Ralf Schumacher's car in the morning was sorted out and at the end of the second session he was 5th and Juan Pablo Montoya 6th fastest.

Ralf Schumacher
"At the end of the second session my car felt quite good despite the fact, due to some technical problems, I couldn't do as many laps and as much set-up work as I would have wished."

Juan Pablo Montoya
"It has not been an easy day, and we have been working hard on getting the car right. The car is difficult to drive at the moment, but we are doing a lot of work to try to improve it. We did quite a few laps, but we still have a lot of work to do."

Patrick Head (Technical Director, WilliamsF1)
"It's the usual story for Friday, we have done some useful homework for the race. We overcame the problem with Ralf's car from this morning, didn't change the engine and it ran fine in the afternoon . Although we lost some running time for Ralf, we tested here with him a few weeks ago so it is not so damaging. We have been doing some work on the two Michelin tyres and we will have to think carefully this evening about which to focus on for tomorrow, when we will be concentrating on getting more speed for good grid positions."

Dr Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director)
"On Ralf's car we had an electronic problem in the first session, which caused the engine to stop. He had a fairly troublefree second session, completing most of his programme, but the mechanics had to repair a water pipe in the side pod which was damaged when Ralf drove over some carbon fibre. Juan Pablo had no technical problems and completing 52 laps - two thirds a race distance - he did more miles than any other driver. All in all we are quite confident for tomorrow."

-Williams