European GP free practice - BMW WilliamsF1 Team

European Grand Prix - FREE PRACTICE 22nd June 2001

Weather:
Air temperature 15°C average. Track temperature 23°C average.

At the end of day one in the Nurburgring the BMW WilliamsF1 Team is fairly 
happy after Ralf Schumacher finished third and Juan Pablo Montoya sixth 
fastest.

Ralf Schumacher
Position: 3rd
Chassis: FW23 05
T-Car: FW23 02
Best Time: 1:17.355
"It was actually better than expected. We improved from the first session and 
the car felt quite good. It is good that my home Grand Prix is starting well."

Juan Pablo Montoya
Position:  6th
Chassis: FW23 06
Best Time: 1:17.737
"It was a good day when I evolved the car a lot so I am pretty happy. It is 
not qualifying, but I had traffic on new tyres and I had people spinning in 
front of me in the first sector, so lost about half a second. My car is 
working well, we are making progress and finding the direction to go."

Patrick Head (Technical Director, WilliamsF1)
"We had a useful day evaluating tyres and race set up. Not much else to say 
as both cars have run without problems. Juan Pablo has re-acquainted himself 
with the Nurburgring quite quickly, as the last time he was here was in '98 
in an F3000 car."

Dr. Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director)
"We are very satisfied with how today's sessions went. Both drivers did a lot 
of laps and completed a very extensive set-up programme. From our side with 
the engines everything went very well."

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

Media contact:

WilliamsF1
Anne Bradshaw
Tel: +44 79 772 75 838

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

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Sylvia Proudfoot
spur07@cs.com
403 287 3945