Malaysian GP: Williams Saturday qualifying notes

Warm track conditions and high humidity did not prove a problem for either of the BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers, Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher during today's qualifying session. Juan Pablo Montoya will start from fourth on the grid with his team mate Ralf Schumacher lining up in seventh position.

Juan Pablo Montoya:

The time I achieved in the second qualifying is a bit more representative of where we truly stand, even if I made a small mistake in the last sector. I felt I had more rhythm, anyway. However, we have shown so far this weekend that our potential has definitely improved from Australia but the question is how our competitors are going to behave tomorrow. Race wise I believe we are looking fine, we have done good long runs and the car seems to be very consistent.

Ralf Schumacher:

Certainly we were hoping to be more on the front here, even if we have definitely improved from the first qualifying session. We drove our first session in a more conservative way than other people and could then improve our time in the second. All in all my qualifying lap wasn't too bad, but I lost some time in the third sector, due to a small mistake. That aside i think we will have a good race, even if Ferrari is going to be strong again.

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):

It was a disappointing qualifying because our pace was strong in the other sessions, but it is qualifying that matters. We have a good race set up on both cars, and look forward to a strong race tomorrow. With the temperatures predicted for tomorrow, the race will also be challenging for everybody's reliability. It will be difficult to challenge the pace of Ferrari.

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):

Our drivers improved from first to second qualifying session as we expected. We will see tomorrow what everyone's qualifying time really means, after the first pit- stops. Our engines have passed with no problems the test of qualifying in such hot conditions. The laptime of Michael Schumacher proves that Ferrari is again favourite, even in the heat. The gap from his team-mate Barrichello could mean they are on a different stategy. The rest of the field is packed together, but the performance of Mark Webber is definitely to praise.

Juan Pablo Montoya: 4th
Chassis: FW26 05
Best time: 1:34,941 min

Ralf Schumacher: 7th
Chassis: FW26 03
(T-car FW02)
Best time: 1:34,777 min

-williams-