German GP free practice - BMW WilliamsF1 Team

German Grand Prix - FREE PRACTICE 27th July 2001

Weather:
Air temperature 31°C average. Track temperature 40°C average.

The start to the German Grand Prix wekend for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team was one 
of mixed fortunes. Ralf Schumacher went off the track at the beginning of the 
second session and so wasn't able to complete the programme scheduled for 
Friday and was only 10th fastest. Meanwhile Juan Pablo Montoya's day was much 
better with him happy with his progress and second at the end of the day.

Juan Pablo Montoya 
Position: 2nd
Chassis: FW23 06
Best Time: 1:41.487
"It was a pretty good day, but we have to wait to see what everybody has got 
for tomorrow. We looked quite competitive today, which is encouraging. The 
car is pretty good and seems to ride the kerbs fairly well, which I think 
helps a lot. We are quite slow in the last sector, so I think we have to work 
on that a little bit."

Ralf Schumacher 
Position: 10th
Chassis: FW23 05 
T-Car: FW23 02
Best Time: 1:42.987
"The first hour went as we expected and was quite good. Unfortunately I went 
off at the beginning of the second hour, and so couldn't continue the set-up 
work we had started in the first session. I was a little too quick into the 
Motodrom, lost the rear and hit the tyre barrier lightly. Because we can't 
use the spare car today, we are facing a lot of work in free practice 
tomorrow."

Patrick Head (Technical Director, WilliamsF1)
"We have had a very useful day on Juan Pablo's car, running the two different 
tyres provided by Michelin, and they both look good, but we will think 
carefully about the choice for the race. For Ralf unfortunately the car got 
away from him at the start of the second practice and that curtailed the work 
he could do. We are in reasonable shape and we have to make sure we build on 
that for qualifying and race conditions."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director)
"The second place for Juan Pablo is a really positive result even though lap 
times on Friday seldom mean a lot. He is happy with the balance of the car 
and the consistency of his lap times underline this. It is a pity Ralf lost 
an important hour, but he knows the circuit very well and his team-mate has 
done a lot of homework for the race set-up, therefore, the disadvantage for 
Ralf shouldn't be too big. All in all we are well prepared for Hockenheim."

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

Media contact:

WilliamsF1
Ann Bradshaw
ann.bradshaw@williamsf1.com
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