Formula 1
Italian GP: Williams race notes
Juan Pablo Montoya scored a podium finish to the Italian Grand Prix at Monza today, while team-mate Marc Gené, deputising for Ralf Schumacher, claimed a highly creditable fifth place. Their joint tally keeps the team in the lead of the FIA Formula ...
Published: Sep 15, 2003, 5:31 PM
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Juan Pablo Montoya scored a podium finish to the Italian Grand Prix at Monza today, while team-mate Marc Gené, deputising for Ralf Schumacher, claimed a highly creditable fifth place. Their joint tally keeps the team in the lead of the FIA Formula One World Championship for Constructors' by four points and promises a climatic showdown to the season with Juan Pablo three points behind Michael Schumacher in the drivers' championship.
Juan Pablo Montoya:
"After a good start I took the first opportunity I saw to try to pass Michael Schumacher at the first chicane. We came out pretty even, but he had better acceleration than me and he kept the lead. We competed cleanly as neither of us could afford a DNF. In the second stint I managed to catch up on my next set of tyres which worked really well. Unfortunately in the third part of the race I was caught in traffic and I made the decision to pace myself."
"We were expecting Ferrari to be strong here, so to only lose two points to Michael and be only three points behind with two races to go is okay. Ferrari had a good top speed compared to us at this low downforce circuit , quite unlike the next two tracks, where I think we will figure strongly."
Marc Gené:
"This is the best result in my Formula One career, and I am really happy. I think a good performance was to be expected, as I had one of the best cars on the grid. At the start I had a problem with Jarno Trulli which cost me three places, but apart from that the race was good. If you get the chance like I did today, you have to make the most of it, and my main priority was to avoid making mistakes, and I think the team is happy with the points I managed to score. I believe the more a driver tests, the better he becomes."
Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
"The team had a good, hard race today and we did what we could, but Michael obviously did a little bit more. Juan drove faultlessly to a valuable second place and Marc did a fantastic job, considering the little time he had to prepare and showed a great pace in the race. The team also performed perfectly and produced good pit-stops. We are looking forward to a extremely close finish to the season."
Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director):
"It was a hard race as expected, but Ferrari had the advantage today. It will become very hard for us to crack the Ferrari nut, but I do expect an extremely exciting fight for us until the very end. The true winner for me today was Marc Gené, who made the most of his chance and did an excellent job for the team today. What was very important given the championship situation was to bring both cars home in the points today."
Juan Pablo Montoya: 2nd
Chassis: FW25 06
Best time: 1:22,126 min (lap 31, 3rd overall)
Marc Gené: 5th
Chassis: FW25 07
Best time: 1:22,413 min (lap 12, 5th overall)
-williams-
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