BMW WilliamsF1 Team-Japanese G.P.-Practice

Japanese Grand Prix  -  FREE PRACTICE                    11th October 2002

Weather: Dry and sunny, 21°C Air, 28° Track

Apart from the last few minutes, when Juan Pablo Montoya went off the track
and crashed into the barriers, it was quite a positive free practice session
for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team for the last race of the season, the 2002
Japanese Grand Prix.
Montoya was fourth and team-mate Ralf Schumacher achieved the fifth best
time.

Juan Pablo Montoya: 4th
Chassis: FW24 04
Best time: 1.35,742 min
"It was a smooth session if it hadn¹t been for the last part of it. In the
last minutes I had a bad crash which damaged my car quite heavily. I went on
the throttle like always and I thought  I was going to make the corner fine
but instead I went over the sharp part of the kerb and lost the car. The
impact was hard and I am still a bit sore. With regards to the balance of my
car there¹s still room for improvement."

Ralf Schumacher: 5th
Chassis: FW24 06 (T-Car FW24 02)
Best time: 1.35,995 min
"Suzuka is a great track and I drive here with great pleasure. I had a good
free practice session where we tried all that was scheduled and we have also
made some progress with regards to the tyre choice. I am quite happy with
the balance of my car."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
"A normal Friday programme working on race set-up. We made some progress
during the day as we made some big changes to the car and the car responded
well. The tyre choice will be difficult as Michelin have brought two good
compounds here so we have to analyse the data later on and see which tyre is
better. All in all we are happy with today¹s performance."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
"With 44 and 38 laps both the drivers have completed a very extensive
programme. It is a pity that Juan Pablo had a crash in the last five
minutes. As usual on a Friday we focused today on the car set-up for this
track. Both the engines ran trouble free in both sessions."