French GP race - BMW WilliamsF1 Team
French Grand Prix - RACE 1st July 2001 Weather: Air temperature 28°C average.Track temperature 46°C average. Ralf Schumacher finished the French Grand Prix in second space and took third in the Drivers' World Championship. Juan Pablo Montoya retired 20 laps before the end with a technical problem but looked likely to finish second. Ralf Schumacher Position: 2nd Chassis: FW2305 Best Time: 1:16.585 5th fastest "Second place is good, but of course from pole you hope to win. I expected to beat Michael at the start, which worked, but after a few metres I had problems with the brake balance. Later we had a problem at the first pit stop and then my second set of tyres did not work well so I pitted early for my second stop. Juan Pablo would have finished ahead of me, so it is a pity for him he had a problem." Juan Pablo Montoya Position: Retired on lap 53 Chassis: FW2306 Best Time: 1:16.355 4th fastest "I think we had a problem with the engine as the lap before it started losing power and then it just died. I am a bit frustrated, but yesterday we sacrificed the performance in qualifying for the race and it paid off as I was running second. I was pretty pleased with the performance of the car in the race.The main thing was being on a different strategy to Ralf to try and beat him and I was ahead of him." Patrick Head (Technical Director, WilliamsF1) "Obviously a mixture of pleasure for Ralf's second place and disappointment because Juan Pablo retired. It would have been nice to have Juan Pablo on the podium as well.There was a problem with Ralf's first stop, which messed his race up a bit, but all in all again a good result for us and we are looking forward to Silverstone." Dr. Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director) "Even though we had some problems with our tyres, we managed another second place, collected six points and are very happy with this. We have now had three consecutive podium positions, which no one expected before the start of the season. Juan Pablo's retirement looks very much as if it was due to an engine failure. We will find out the reason when we get the engine back to Munich." Testing: Barcelona - 3/5/6 July Marc Gené - 4 July Juan Pablo Montoya: Lurcy-Levis - 3/4/5 July Ricardo Sperafico Goodwood Festival of Speed - 7 July Juan Pablo Montoya (FW22) Current high-resolution photographs may be downloaded from the BMW PressClub at www.press.bmwgroup.com(registration at any time). Media contact: WilliamsF1 Ann Bradshaw ann.bradshaw@williamsf1.com Tel: +44 79 772 75 838 BMW Guido Stalmann Tel: +49(0) 170 5666 112 guido.stalmann@bmw.de ### Sylvia Proudfoot spur07@cs.com 403 287 3945