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Formula One: French GP free practice - BMW Williams F1

1 July 2000

French Grand Prix - FREE PRACTICE
30th June 2000

Weather:  Sunny. Air temperature 24°C av. Track temperature 34°C av.

The BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers Jenson Button and Ralf
Schumacher -- who is celebrating today his 25th birthday -- were 17th
and 9th respectively in the first free practice sessions for the French
Grand Prix.

Ralf Schumacher
Chassis:            FW22 02
T-Car Chassis:  FW22 03
Best Time:      1:18.148 
Position:           9th   
"Generally I am happy with the car.  We could make good use of last
week's testing here in Magny-Cours.  The car is still a little bit nervous
at the rear in the entry to the corner but I'm sure that we can solve this
problem before tomorrow's qualifying.  We didn't use a new set of
tyres at the end of the second session, in order to preserve them and
be flexible for qualifying and Sunday's race."

Jenson Button
Chassis:        FW22 04
Best Time:  1:18.969
Position:       17th   
"We had quite a smooth day, just doing a lot of work for the race. We
haven't really been able to get a correct set-up yet due to a few
problems, but hopefully we'll get it tomorrow. At the end of the
session I went out on new tyres but we couldn't exploit them to the
best by collecting useful data as I couldn't get a clear lap."

Patrick Head (Technical Director, WilliamsF1)
"Both cars had a trouble free day.  As every other team, we are
extending the work that we've been doing at the test in order to work
on race set-up. Tomorrow we will have to focus our attention much
more to qualifying conditions."

Dr Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director)
"On the birthday of our older driver we managed to avoid any extra
excitement, as both engines ran trouble-free.  For qualifying and the
race we feel we are standing in good stead."  


Actual high resolution photographs may be downloaded from the
BMW Press Club at www.press.bmwclub.com (log-in at any time).