BMW WilliamsF1 Team-Malaysian GP-Final Qualifying

Malaysian Grand Prix  -  FINAL QUALIFYING                    22nd March 2003

Weather: Dry, temperatures air/track 34/50°C (Schumacher), 34/40°C (Montoya)

Sepang (MAL). After the troublefree morning¹s Practice in the heat of
Malaysia, the BMW WilliamsF1 Team performed discretely in the Final
Qualifying session. Juan Pablo Montoya will start the second Grand Prix of
the season from eighth position whereas team mate Ralf Schumacher will be
17th on the grid. Race will start at 3:00pm local time (7:00am UK time).

Juan Pablo Montoya: 8th
Chassis: FW25 04
Best time: 1.37,974 min
"I had some balance problems, which were expected with the set-up we need
for the race on this track. I was very worried when I saw Ralf¹s lap though,
as he was struggling with his balance quite a lot. However, I am pretty
happy that we are quite close to McLaren and I think that we look pretty
good for the race thanks to our strategy."

Ralf Schumacher: 17th
Chassis: FW25 03 (Spare Car FW25 02)
Best time: 1.38,789 min
"I am still not happy with the balance of my car and in addition to this I
made a couple of mistakes in two corners, where I lost some time. Anyway, I
shouldn¹t be 8 tenths away from my teammate. It¹s clear that I have to get
used to this new qualifying system. Nevertheless I believe we have a good
strategy compared to the other teams and our performance will improve for
Sunday."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
"Even though it is difficult to tell where everybody is because of the fuel
loads for the race, we expected to be higher on the grid with both cars.
Juan did a good job, though. Now we have to work out how to get the most out
of these grid positions."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
"Congratulation to Renault for having placed both their cars on the first
row. With position 8 and 17 our cars are a bit far behind. We will know only
tomorrow in the race how much these positions will affect our performance.
It¹s mostly about the different fuel load and the tyre choice. Furthermore,
here in Sepang there¹s always the chance of a rainstorm. I think the viewers
will enjoy an eventful and entertaining race."