French GP: Williams race notes

After a great performance in Saturday's qualifying, the BMW WilliamsF1 team could not race as competitively as expected. Juan Pablo Montoya, who was starting from pole, achieved a fourth position for the 2002 French Grand Prix in Magny-Cours. Ralf Schumacher finished fifth and congratulated his brother for a 5th World Championship.

Juan Pablo Montoya:

"Again I could not take advantage of my pole position. In the race I have been struggling a lot with the balance of my car, which was very difficult to drive. Our tyre choice was good in yesterday's hotter conditions but didn't pay off today, in cooler conditions. As the race went on, we were loosing grip more and more. With regards to Michael having won the Championship I think it's great for him. He did the best job in the paddock, has the best car and knows how to use it. Anyway, last year I finished sixth in the drivers Championship but I am second at present, so my target now is to secure my position."

Ralf Schumacher:

"We knew we would have a high tyre consumption due to our car's characteristics and therefore we went for the hard tyre choice that Michelin offered us. In the end this proved to be a disadvantage. It wasn't as warm as we hoped. On my last lap I knew from the team that my brother had become World Champion. Congratulations to Michael, as he really deserves this Title."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):

"This was obviously a disappointing race day for us as it has shown we were simply not competitive enough. Our tyre choice looks like s mistake and our performance in race trim is not enough. The strategy on both cars was to defend as much as possible, but this was clearly again not enough."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director):

"We didn't have any technical problems. We scored points with both cars, which is satisfying. But when you start from pole, you obviously hope for a podium position. We know that we need to raise our race performance up to our qualifying level. We have to continue working hard because McLaren has made a big step forward. The fight for second place in the Constructors Championship is going to be exciting. This is good news, at least for the viewers. Ferrari has proved once again to be the paragon in F1, being a team with great performances and with a Michael Schumacher, who once again was in the right place at the right time. All we can say is congratulations!"

Juan Pablo Montoya: 4th
Chassis: FW24 05
Fastest Lap: 1:15,697 on lap 26 (5th overall)

Ralf Schumacher: 5th
Chassis: FW24 06
Fastest Lap: 1:15,584 lap 24 (4th overall)

-williams-