Montoya won't move over for Ralf

Juan Pablo Montoya said he will not move over for Ralf Schumacher if his Williams teammate was on a different strategy from him, as Schumacher wouldn't move for him when asked to in the past. Montoya referred to an incident two years ago, so ...

Juan Pablo Montoya said he will not move over for Ralf Schumacher if his Williams teammate was on a different strategy from him, as Schumacher wouldn't move for him when asked to in the past. Montoya referred to an incident two years ago, so presumably it still grates on his nerves that Schumacher wasn't willing to help out his teammate.

Juan Pablo Montoya.

Photo by Nikki Reynolds.

"Ralf didn't listen to the team on the radio when they asked him to move over at the 2001 French Grand Prix so I'm not doing it for him," Montoya was quotes as saying in the British press. "I came up behind him and was closing on Michael (Schumacher), who was ahead of us, but he wouldn't move. He did it again at Silverstone."

Team orders that effect the outcome of a race are now banned and Williams has said that it has no intention of asking one of its drivers to support the other in the championship unless it becomes impossible for one of them to win it. "It's not allowed," said BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen on the subject of team orders. "The main thing is that they score as many points as possible."

Montoya was second in the last race at Silverstone but trails Michael Schumacher in the standings by fourteen points: "I am now third in the Drivers' Championship and this is very good," Montoya said in the run up to this weekend's German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. "But the gap from the lead is still substantial and I need to score points consistently in every race to be able to challenge for the title."

Just two points separate Montoya and Schumacher in the driver's standings, the Colombian ahead with 55 and Ralf on 53, and it's a close fought battle between the pair this season.