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BMW F1 BGP free practice

22 April 2000

21st April 2000
British Grand Prix - FREE PRACTICE

Weather:  Changeable with frequent showers. 12°C average

BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers Jenson Button and Ralf Schumacher
were 11th and 15th quickest respectively in the first free practice
sessions for the British Grand Prix. Hard showers that severely
compromised track time hampered both the sessions. Due to a
problem in the morning session Ralf couldn't achieve any timed lap.

Jenson Button
Chassis:            FW22 04
Best Time:      1:29.775
Best Position:      11th

"It's good to be on my home circuit and I am sure this will help me. I
know the track reasonably well from Formula Three races and from
our testing. It's quite difficult to get used to such changeable weather
and track conditions. I don't think that I have ever driven in such a
terrible environment."

Ralf Schumacher
Chassis:            FW22 03
T-Car Chassis:  FW22 02
Best Time:      1:30:593 
Best Position:      15th

"Unfortunately my car stopped in the first session and I couldn't even
complete one timed lap. At the beginning of the second session half
of the track was quite dry which didn't help us in our set up work.
Then, at the end of the free practice it was raining so hard that, over
the two hours, I only managed 14 timed laps."

Patrick Head (Technical Director, WilliamsF1)
"It is obviously difficult to gain anything particularly useful out of a day
such as this. The changeable weather and consequent track
conditions have been very difficult to work with, but it has been the
same for everybody. Luckily, we tested here last week and therefore
it's not as significant as it would have been otherwise."

Dr. Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director)
"We expected the weather to be like this during the Easter weekend.
This could be considered a training session for the race itself. Overall,
the conditions today were too variable to make any reasonable
statement about the performance of the car and the engine."