Spanish GP: Williams Saturday qualifying notes

For the first time this year, one of the BMW WilliamsF1 Team's drivers made it onto the front row of the grid. Juan Pablo Montoya qualified in second position for the Spanish Grand Prix, while Ralf Schumacher qualified in sixth. In the first qualifying session, Juan Pablo set the fastest lap time, which gave him the advantage of going out last for final qualifying, while Ralf set the fourth fastest time.

Juan Pablo Montoya:

"I am very, very pleased to have qualified on the front row again, it was about time. My car had a really nice balance in the pre-qualifying session, but I had too much oversteer during final qualifying so I lost some time. Of course you always want more, but I believe we have a very good race car. We will have to see how our tyres behave tomorrow because this track is hard on the cars, especially the tyres. It will be a long race, but we will hopefully see some good racing action. It's important for the team's motivation that we've got this result today because everyone has been working really hard. It's also nice to see Takuma at the front of the grid."

Ralf Schumacher:

"Of course I can not be happy with my qualifying result. It's clear that I didn't manage to get the best out of the car, especially in the mid-sector, as the car seemed very nervous through it. However, starting a race from sixth place, you can still finish well, as I think that we have gone for a very good strategy."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):

"Juan did a good job in qualifying so he should be in a good position to challenge in the race tomorrow. It's a shame we don't have both cars at the front. We had a good morning practice, during which we tried some new chassis set-ups, which we will run in the race, so we're looking forward to a good day tomorrow."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):

"This was a very good qualifying session for us. I would have expected the two Ferraris to have been on the front row, and also for the other B.A.R. to have been further up the grid. Ralf obviously had problems with the handling of the car, mainly in the second sector, which cost him time and so a better grid position. On Friday, we saw the Ferraris doing very consistent lap times with their tyres, so I assume they will have an advantage in the race as well."

Juan Pablo Montoya: 2nd
Chassis: FW26 06
(T-car FW05)
Best time: 1:15.639 min

Ralf Schumacher: 6th
Chassis: FW26 07
Best time: 1:16.293 min

-williams-