German GP Williams Friday practice notes

The start to the German Grand Prix wekend for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team was one of mixed fortunes. Ralf Schumacher went off the track at the beginning of the second session and so wasn't able to complete the programme scheduled for Friday and was only 10th fastest. Meanwhile Juan Pablo Montoya's day was much better with him happy with his progress and second at the end of the day.

Juan Pablo Montoya
"It was a pretty good day, but we have to wait to see what everybody has got for tomorrow. We looked quite competitive today, which is encouraging. The car is pretty good and seems to ride the kerbs fairly well, which I think helps a lot. We are quite slow in the last sector, so I think we have to work on that a little bit."

Ralf Schumacher
"The first hour went as we expected and was quite good. Unfortunately I went off at the beginning of the second hour, and so couldn't continue the set-up work we had started in the first session. I was a little too quick into the Motodrom, lost the rear and hit the tyre barrier lightly. Because we can't use the spare car today, we are facing a lot of work in free practice tomorrow."

Patrick Head (Technical Director, WilliamsF1)
"We have had a very useful day on Juan Pablo's car, running the two different tyres provided by Michelin, and they both look good, but we will think carefully about the choice for the race. For Ralf unfortunately the car got away from him at the start of the second practice and that curtailed the work he could do. We are in reasonable shape and we have to make sure we build on that for qualifying and race conditions."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director)
"The second place for Juan Pablo is a really positive result even though lap times on Friday seldom mean a lot. He is happy with the balance of the car and the consistency of his lap times underline this. It is a pity Ralf lost an important hour, but he knows the circuit very well and his team-mate has done a lot of homework for the race set-up, therefore, the disadvantage for Ralf shouldn't be too big. All in all we are well prepared for Hockenheim."

-Williams/BMW