Japanese GP Saturday Williams notes

Both drivers of the BMW WilliamsF1 Team, Jenson Button and Ralf Schumacher, will start the race from the third row for the first time this season. They were respectively 5th and 6th quickest in qualifying for the 2000 Japanese Grand Prix.

Jenson Button
"It's great to come to a circuit like Suzuka for the first time and qualify fifth! It's one of the best moments of this season for me. It's amazing! I owe a lot to the mechanics and to the engineers, because they did a great job. But I cannot start celebrating yet - obviously tomorrow I have to finish the race. This is a particularly technical circuit and it wasn't an easy job, I must say, because it took me a little bit longer to learn. Yesterday I was about 1.5 seconds off Ralf's pace, but we've got it together now."

Ralf Schumacher
"We can be absolutely happy starting from the third row. I wasn't really lucky with my car, as during qualifying it wasn't quite as good as in this morning's free practice. I couldn't manage to find the perfect set-up."

Frank Williams
"Very encouraging performance by everybody in the team, especially the two drivers and their engineers. We wait with impatience for tomorrow."

Patrick Head (Technical Director WilliamsF1)
"A good solid qualifying with both our cars on the third row. Ralf was losing time to Jenson on the straights, we are not sure why as settings were similar. The two top teams are a bit in their own class but we hope we can race well tomorrow and we can produce some points."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director)
"For the first time both our cars will start from the third row. This equality makes us happy and our position again reflects our situation. So far we could only breach the two top teams when they had a problem. From this starting position we can well hope for some points. Once again Jenson gave a great performance. During the whole weekend he has kept up with the other more experienced drivers on such a difficult track."