German GP Saturday Williams notes

Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button will start from 14th and 16th positions respectively for the 2000 German Grand Prix. Today's qualifying was strongly affected by changeable weather and track conditions. At the very end of the morning's first free practice session Ralf slid off the track and damaged his car, which was repaired in time to allow him only two laps of running in the second session.

Ralf Schumacher
Position: 14th
Chassis: FW22 02
Fastest Lap: 1:48.841
T-car: FW22 03 "With such weather conditions you have to be out on the circuit at the right time and we didn't manage it. At the end I couldn't improve as we were on dry set up because we were expecting dry conditions. I'm not worried about tomorrow's race as anything could happen."

Jenson Button
Position: 16th
Chassis: FW22 04
Fastest Lap: 1.49.215

"My first lap was fast but in the first corner Fisichella went off the track into the gravel and came straight back across the circuit almost twice, so I had to lift off quite a bit and lost some time. When Fisichella went out for his second run the track was in good condition and nobody was out on the track. He really had perfect timing! We went out just after but it started raining. In my last run the track was too wet for any improvement." Patrick Head (Technical Director)
"A very disappointing qualifying but really as a result of not making the right choices in the pits about when to be out on the circuit and in what condition. There was an element of chance in it but an element that needed decisiveness and we really got the wrong end of that. Anyway we have to do everything to make sure the car is reliable tomorrow and try to have a reliable run in the race."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director)
"The result is disappointing for us, as we were expecting better positions than 14th and 16th. The weather conditions were hard for everybody but the timing made the difference and ours wasn't the best. We didn't have any technical problems."