Japanese GP: Williams Saturday notes

In today's qualifying session for the 2002 Japanese Grand Prix Ralf Schumacher finished fifth just ahead of his team mate Juan Pablo Montoya. The session was suspended for over one hour due to a bad accident which befell Allan McNish's Toyota, fortunately with no consequences for the driver. Therefore, the BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers will start the season's final Grand Prix side by side from the third row.

Ralf Schumacher

"I was running quite well until McNish had his accident and I had to abort my lap and was called back into the pits, but you can't do anything about it. It is always nice to be in front of your team-mate even if also this time, as many times before, the gap is very tight. We are not happy to see both the McLarens in front of us but I am also sure that we will be able to make their life difficult in the race."

Juan Pablo Montoya

"A disappointing qualifying, no doubt about it. The car wasn't well balanced and I also made a couple of mistakes, especially in my last run, so I blew away my last chance to improve. It's a shame to start so far away on the grid. Unfortunately today I have equalled my worse qualifying position this year which I set in Australia."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):

"Having both the cars on the third row is quite a disappointing qualifying result. We are obviously far behind Ferrari and it is also pretty clear that the McLarens have moved in front of us here. But the race can be always a different story. We will concentrate on our race set-up now and see how we can finish the 2002 season."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director):

"The McLarens were strong as expected and this time they have pushed us back to the third row. I am expecting a difficult race but I also hope that we can improve our position and finish the last race of this season with a further podium position. A driver easily misses his rhythm in such a long break as we had today in the qualifying session but this was the same for everyone."

Ralf Schumacher: 5th
Chassis: FW24 06
Best time: 1.32,444 min

Juan Pablo Montoya: 6th
Chassis: FW24 04
(T-Car FW24 02)
Best time: 1:32,507 min

-williams-