San Marino GP Friday Williams notes

BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button were 9th and 20th quickest in the first free practice sessions for the San Marino Grand Prix. Neither of the drivers finished the session. Ralf spun off the track and Jenson had an engine failure that stopped him on the start finish straight.

Ralf Schumacher
Best Position: 9th
Chassis: FW22 03
Best Time: 1:28.372
"So far I am very happy with the set up of my car. I think we showed a good performance today. In the second free practice session I lost the car in the Acque Minerali corner totally unexpectedly, as before I never had any problem here. Anyway, we are now looking forward to qualifying and I am confident that the BMW WilliamsF1 Team can do a good job."

Jenson Button
Best Position: 20th
Chassis: FW22 01
Best Time: 1:29.326
"We got through a lot of set up work on the car. I’m not quite where I wanted to be after the first free practice but the most important time will be tomorrow at about two o’clock, in qualifying. I know we have got some homework to do and tomorrow hopefully I will be further up the time sheets. I think this circuit is very difficult to learn, as it’s very narrow and mostly you’ve got to use the kerbs a lot here, something I haven’t done so far this year. It’s all about making your car work over the kerbs and myself getting used to driving in this way. Anyway, it should be fine tomorrow."

Patrick Head (Technical Director, WilliamsF1)
"A useful practice session. We made reasonable progress with the set up of Ralf’s car. It’s a pity we lost the latter part of the practice with Ralf losing the car under braking and going off the circuit in a position from which he could not get the car back on track. It doesn’t look as if there’s any damage. Jenson had a bit of a struggle, I am not sure whether that’s him learning the circuit or whether it is more to do with the set up of his car but at the end he appeared happier with his car. He was expecting to go a bit better but then we had what looks like an engine problem. Again of interest it’s with Jenson rather than Ralf so we will be having a look to see if we can find out why."

Dr. Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director)
"Ralf’s car was performing well before he spun. His laptimes were pleasing and he was in the fourth position when he went off. Jenson was very diligent in his work. He improved his times in terms of tenths lap after lap and was stll improving when he stopped. The engine failure did not show in the telemetry data and we will find the reason as quickly as possible. Anyway, the failure happened three minutes before the end of the session, when he had already put 36 laps under his belt on this track which was again completely unknown to him."