Austrian GP qualifying - BMW WilliamsF1 Team

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

Austrian Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 12th May 2001

Weather: dry and sunny. Air temperature 18°C. Track temperature 27°C.

The BMW WilliamsF1 Team achieved its best qualifying result since the 
beginning of the British-German partnership: Juan Pablo Montoya qualified 
second on the grid for the Austrian Grand Prix, right in front of his team 
mate Ralf Schumacher, who was third.

Juan Pablo Montoya : 2nd 
Chassis: FW23 02 
Best Time: 1:09.686
"For us today qualifying went pretty well. We had a good Friday, as we did in 
Spain, and the second weekend with no problems on the first day makes a huge 
difference. We have made a lot of improvements on the car recently and they 
have paid off. The reason we couldn't improve our time after the second run 
was because the wind changed direction during the session to a head wind."

Ralf Schumacher: 3rd 
Chassis: FW23 05 
Best Time: 1:09.769
"A great result for the whole team. On one hand it is better to be second 
than third, but on the other Juan Pablo will have to start from the dirty 
side of the track. The qualifying was good, although I had some traffic on 
one quick lap and did a small mistake on another. It is going to be tough to 
predict what will happen in the race, but I think we are going to be strong 
in the second half when the circuit has more rubber on it."

Patrick Head (Technical Director, WilliamsF1)
"The result was a better than we expected, but both drivers did a great job 
today. It is good to see Juan Pablo realising his potential in qualifying. 
Now we have to get the strategy right for the race so we can make the best 
use of today's achievement. The Michelin tyres were obviously extremely good 
for qualifying and we used fresh sets."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director)
"One point two-tenths of a second off pole - we have never been so close 
before. We expected a good qualifying today, but this result is even a little 
bit better than our expectations, and means excellent chances for the race 
tomorrow. Both drivers did very good performances and were positive about the 
car and the engine."

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

###

Sylvia Proudfoot
spur07@cs.com
403 287 3945