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Formula One: BMW Williams F1 Canadian GP qualifying

18 June 2000

BMW WilliamsF1 team - Qualifying
Canadian Grand Prix - QUALIFYING                 17th June 2000

Weather: Changeable and windy. Average temperature 24° C

Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button will start from 12th and 18th
places respectively for the 2000 Canadian Grand Prix. Both the drivers
were prevented from achieving a better grid position by some
technical problems, particularly Jenson whose car suffered a fuel pick
up problem.
 
Ralf Schumacher         Position:       12th
Chassis:                FW22 02
T-car:                  FW22 03
Fastest Lap:            1:20.073                 
"I am not happy with my qualifying result. After the morning session I
expected to be within the top six positions, unfortunately I finished
only 12th. I don't know yet the exact cause, but I felt that in the
morning the car was much easier to drive whereas in qualifying I had
too little grip. Now we will sit down to analyse what happened and
hopefully we will find a good solution for tomorrow's race. With
regards to my injured leg I don't have any problem." 

Jenson Button   Position:       18th
Chassis:                FW22 04
Fastest Lap:            1.20.534                 
"Not a good qualifying at all, today. In my first lap out of the pits I
found a very dirty track, including some plastic bags taken by the
wind, then I had to abort the second run because of the red flag. After
that, I couldn't achieve a better time because my car suffered some
problems with the fuel pick up system, the engine would cut out
whenever I was going at
full revs." 

Patrick Head (Technical Director)
"Disappointing grid positions.  Really we were not in good shape on
Friday and maybe corrected some of the problems but nothing like
enough so we just have to concentrate on trying to have a reliable
race tomorrow. Technical problems on Jenson's car meant that he
really didn't have a fair crack at qualifying."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director)
"We expected our starting positions in Canada to be quite different,
particularly after the morning free practice sessions, when Ralf and
Jenson were 6th and 11th respectively, We were confident that in the
afternoon's qualifying session we could achieve positions consistent
with our performance so far this season. We are analysing the
situation in order to be stronger for tomorrow's race."