Spanish GP qualifying: BMW WilliamsF1 Team

Spanish Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 28th April 2001

Media contact:

WilliamsF1
Silvia Hoffer
Tel: +39(0) 335 8018 283
silvia.hoffer@williamsf1.com

BMW
Guido Stalmann
Tel: +49(0) 170 5666 112
guido.stalmann@bmw.de

Weather: Dry. Air temperature 21°C. Track temperature 30°C (average).

It was mixed fortunes for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team in qualifying. Ralf was 
fifth and Juan Pablo 12th. Traffic and yellow flags meant Juan Pablo had 
problems finding clear runs, while Ralf had a good session and the team 
believe he got the best out of the car.

Ralf Schumacher: 5th
Chassis: FW23 05 (T-Car Chassis: FW23 01)
Best Time: 1:19.016
"I am happy so far as we got the most out of the car, as it was clear 
Barcelona would be difficult for us. In view of this, being eight-tenths away 
from pole is reasonable. Making a forecast for the race is difficult as our 
package here is not as strong as in Imola."

Juan Pablo Montoya : 12th
Chassis: FW23 02
Best Time: 1:19.660
"I am very disappointed as we made a huge improvement from this morning. I 
had a decent first run, the second was better and I was trying to do 
everything step by step. On the third I was quicker but we had traffic and a 
yellow flag. Then in the last one I had Villeneuve and traffic, so that was 
it. The car was good, and the sad thing was the time was there. My engineers 
and the guys did a fantastic job but now we have to see what happens in the 
race."

Patrick Head (Technical Director, WilliamsF1)
"I think Ralf did a very good job and got the best he could out of the car. 
Unfortunately for Juan Pablo, problems on a couple of runs meant he didn't 
get a clear lap, and he was confident he could have done better. This means 
he has a lot of work to do tomorrow."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director)
"Under the circumstances we are very pleased with fifth as it is a bit hard 
for us here. The problems we have here are it is a circuit where you need 
more downforce and we are not as advanced as we wanted to be with development 
of traction control. We are happy with Ralf's result. Juan Pablo did not get 
his rhythm right here, but we know how good he is at overtaking so his 
chances for the race aren't that bad."

Current high-resolution photographs may be downloaded from the BMW Press Club 
at www.press.bmwgroup.com (registration at any time).

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Sylvia Proudfoot
spur07@cs.com
403 287 3945