BMW WilliamsF1 Team - Monaco GP - Race

Monaco Grand Prix - RACE
26th May 2002

Weather: dry, sunny, 23ƒC Air, 34ƒC Track

A mixed result for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team in the 2002 Monaco Grand Prix.
Ralf Schumacher scored four more points achieving third position whereas
team mate Juan Pablo Montoya, who had started from pole, gave up second
position on lap 47 due to an engine failure.

Ralf Schumacher:             3rd
Chassis:  FW24 06
Fastest Lap: 1:19,489 on lap 61
"I am really happy that I have finally finished a race in Monaco, the first
since my days in Formula 3 and on top of that achieving a podium. After
five retirements here in F1 I was starting to believe that Monte Carlo
doesn't like me at all. We have had a superb car all weekend but this
wasn't enough to beat Ferrari and McLaren. I had to make an additional pit
stop because something was wrong with my rear left tyre, but luckily my
advantage over Jarno Trulli was big enough to maintain third position.
Earlier in the race I could see Michael and Juan Pablo fighting in front of
me and I thought that I should stay back as you never know what might
happen."

Juan Pablo Montoya:       DNF
Chassis: FW24 05
Fastest Lap: 1:20,346 on lap 36
"I am disappointed I could not finish this race. It's a true shame that we
had an engine failure as the car and the engine had behaved very well all
weekend. I had a bad start and lost the lead but during the race I knew the
pace was there and I managed to keep my head together, I was ahead of
Michael and we could have taken away some points from him, but that's
racing! I felt a loss of engine power and unfortunately my race was
finished. It had been a very interesting race until this happened."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
"A disappointing day to come away with only a third place after our strong
grid positions. It showed a lack of performance in race conditions on this
type of circuit. We had some traction problems that our competitors dealt
with better, which forced us to an early pit stop. Ralf then had another
stop because of a problem with his rear tyre. Still, we go away from Monaco
with more points, which is good."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director):
"Normally one should be pleased with third place, but on the other hand
from pole position one is racing for victory, of course. It has been a
great weekend for Formula One as we have seen today and in qualifying very
good fights for the top positions. David Coulthard drove a perfect race
today with McLaren-Mercedes. It is good that Ralf was able to keep third
position in spite of his additional stop. It is a pity that Juan retired
with an engine failure after fighting brave. We still do not know the
reason for it.

Silverstone Test: 28-30 May (Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya)