FW: BMW WilliamsF1 Team - Australian GP, Qualifying

Australian Grand Prix ñ QUALIFYING      2nd March 2002

Weather:
Rain starting after 30 minutes. Average air temperature 17ƒC. track
temperature 17ƒC.

Showers provided additional excitement to the qualifying session of the
Australian Grand Prix. For the BMW WilliamsF1 Team Ralf Schumacher had more
luck in terms of timing and qualified third on the grid. Team mate Juan
Pablo Montoya will start from sixth
place for the first race of the season, on Sunday at 3:00am UK time.

Ralf Schumacher                         Position:  3rd
Chassis: FW24 04
Best Time: 1:26.279
Of course I am pleased with my result. As we knew it would start raining,
we feared we would miss the best moment for having a quick lap. But our
timing was good. It is a pity for Juan, who was blocked on his flying lap,
as our team result could have been
even better. My car was good. I just had a bit of understeer, which we
should get sorted out by tomorrow.

Juan Pablo Montoya              Position:  6th
Chassis: FW24 02 (T-Car: FW24 01)
Best Time: 1:27.249
I had only one run and I think I lost about six or eight tenths because
Fisichella held me up. That was a bit disappointing because there was a lot
more to come in the car. But anyway, I feel well prepared for tomorrow. In
the morning session we have found
 out quite a few useful things

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer WilliamsF1)
We had a reasonably good day given the weather circumstances. Juan Pablo
was unlucky to have traffic on his first run. Ralf decided to sit out the
first three or four minutes to avoid the traffic and managed to get a clear
lap and to put in a good time . B
ut in terms of competitiveness, the car is reasonable. The drivers were
quite complimentary about the balance. The important thing now is to
capitalise on it tomorrow and make sure we get the best result in the race
with a healthy  points haul.

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director)
It was very difficult to get the timing right in todayís qualifying, due to
the showers preventing us from getting a dry lap in without too much
traffic. It worked well for Ralf, but not for Juan.  For the race we have
many chances starting from our grid p
ositions. We have enjoyed two trouble free days behind us and all the test
kilometres we completed in the last two months are now paying off. I hope
this will also be the case tomorrow. Reliability is massively important in
the first race as all the new ca
rs are at an early stage of their development.


Photographs may be downloaded from the BMW Press Club at
www.press.bmwgroup.com