US GP: Williams Friday qualifying notes

An untroubled start to the US GP weekend for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team, with Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya achieving the 4th and the 5th best times respectively in the First Qualifying Session, which was run under changeable weather and track conditions.

Ralf Schumacher:

"I am reasonably happy with what we have achieved today and I feel reasonably well too. My lap wasn't very good, I braked too late into turn one due to some understeer. It's a shame we couldn't find the optimum balance this morning, but we had very little running in dry conditions. However, it's still very encouraging for tomorrow. I believe we have the strongest package, no doubt about it and it's going to be a very tough race for Ferrari if they want to win."

Juan Pablo Montoya:

"It was a bit of a gamble to know if the set-up of the car was ok for qualifying, since this morning I didn't get much running in the dry. I lost a bit of time in a couple of corners because I braked too early. However, I hope it will be dry tomorrow and on Sunday notwithstanding the fact that Michelin has brought here some very competitive wet tyres. I am very pleased with my car, I think we've got a very good package for this weekend, I wasn't the quickest today but I am in front of my main rivals and this is the most important thing."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):

"The circuit appeared to get faster for the first ten cars before the rain came, which makes it a bit difficult to assess the lap times. However, we have had a good first day and have now some work to do on the race set-up. We are confident about taking the challenge to the front in tomorrow's qualifying session."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):

"Today's qualifying was strongly affected by changing weather conditions. The second half of the field had to run on a wet track . Both of our drivers ran in fairly good conditions which will allow them to start tomorrow's final qualifying in the top five. If the weather remains consistent these should be good start positions for the qualifying. BMW has done a further step on the engine side for Indy and Suzuka and both cars had a trouble-free day."

Ralf Schumacher: 4th
Chassis: FW25 07
(Spare car FW25 02)
Best time: 1.10,222 min

Juan Pablo Montoya: 5th
Chassis: FW25 06
(Spare car FW25 04)
Best time: 1.10.372 min

-williams-