Belgian GP qualifying - BMW WilliamsF1 Team front row

Belgian GP - QUALIFYING September 1, 2001

Weather: Drying after rain. Air temperature 14°C. Track temperature 14°C.

The BMW WilliamsF1 Team demonstrated perfect timing and driver performances 
as the track was drying out during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix. 
Juan Pablo Montoya claimed his second pole in Formula 1 and Ralf Schumacher 
starts from second spot on the grid. This is the second time the FW23s have 
been on the front row of the grid, the first being at the German Grand Prix.

Juan Pablo Montoya 
Position: 1st
Chassis: FW23 06
Best Time: 1:52.072
"The team was brilliant, I think everybody did a fantastic job and the car is 
working very well on dry tyres. Yesterday we had a big struggle on the 
set-up, but I had a good think overnight and it really paid off. I went 
through two different sets of tyres - we did the first lap to get us on the 
grid - but we knew it was going to get dryer and dryer. We went out to get 
our time on dry tyres and it really worked. This is a track I know quite well 
and like."

Ralf Schumacher 
Position: 2nd
Chassis: FW23 07 (T-Car: FW23 02)
Best Time: 1:52.959
"No doubt the team can be very satisfied with today's result. What to do was 
not really an easy decision to take. At the end of the day it didn't work too 
bad! It is always under these conditions that you need a bit of confidence 
that the car is going well, and you need to have a clean and good lap. The 
circuit conditions became fairly even by the end of the session. But while 
the main line on the straight was already dry, in some corners, especially in 
turns three and four, it was still wet."

Patrick Head (Technical Director WilliamsF1)
"It was a brilliant job today from the team and the drivers. No one could 
have done a better job with the information from the weather forecast to take 
the cars out at the right time. After our front row in Hockenheim it was 
another perfect effort."

Gerhard Beger (BMW Motorsport Director)
"It was a typical Spa tyre gamble today. But under these changing conditions 
the timing of the team was perfect. We knew that we would have good chances 
under dry conditions, and both drivers have shown top performance in the very 
limited time they had at the end of the session. At the precise moment when 
the conditions were good enough for dry tyres, we were able to use the full 
potential of our package."

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