Spanish GP: Williams Friday qualifying notes

The BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya finished in 11th and 14th positions respectively in the first qualifying session of the Spanish Grand Prix, which will start on Sunday 14:00 hrs local time. The Circuit de Catalunya is known for being extremely challenging regarding the set-up of the cars as the conditions are usually very variable.

Ralf Schumacher:

"Obviously the first qualifying session was not satisfying for me. I was struggling with the balance of the car and made a few mistakes. In one corner I nearly lost the car. Though, I am not too worried. In qualifying we have not yet seen the full potential of the FW25. Now we will go ahead to further improve the set-up for tomorrow's practice sessions and final qualifying."

Juan Pablo Montoya:

"We knew that this was going to be a difficult weekend for us and this afternoon's times show that we are still struggling in finding the right balance for our car on this track. I had some oversteer on my qualifying lap which severely affected my performance. Let's work on it now and hopefully sort it out for tomorrow."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):

"After looking competitive this morning we went in the wrong direction on the set up and had a few problems with the balance on both cars which caused us to lose quite a bit of time in qualifying. Now we are going to have a look at the data to make sure we can sort this our for tomorrow, even though tomorrow is a different story anyway because we are going to set up the car for the race."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):

"In the Free Practice both the drivers, especially Ralf, had succeeded in setting up the car for this track quite well but in qualifying they were both unhappy with their balance. Our times and positions show that the track conditions have changed since this morning. However, the time that Ralf achieved this morning in Free Practice would have been good for first position in qualifying."

Ralf Schumacher: 11th
Chassis: FW25 05
Best time: 1.18,409 min

Juan Pablo Montoya: 14th
Chassis: FW25 06
Best time: 1.18,687 min
(Spare Car FW25 04)

-williams-