BMW WilliamsF1 Team-Austrian GP-1st Qualifying

Austrian Grand Prix  -  FIRST QUALIFYING
16th May 2003

Weather: Dry, 15°C Air, 23°C Track

Spielberg (AUT). In today¹s First Qualifying session of what could well be
the last Austrian Grand Prix weekend, Juan Pablo Montoyaset the sixth
fastest time for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team. After an excursion off the track,
Ralf Schumacher will start tomorrow¹s Final Qualifying in a disadvantageous
first place.

Juan Pablo Montoya:    6th
Chassis: FW25 06 
Best time: 1.08,839 min
"I had to abort my first run due to a red flag, but in spite of this, it
seems like we have managed to get on top of the car and have figured it out
a bit here ­ we have re-discovered our feeling with the car, which is
positive. The last few races it has been really hard for us but this session
makes me think that things could go much better here. My qualifying lap was
quite good even if had a bit too much understeer, but overall the car was
easy to drive and I am pretty pleased with it."

Ralf Schumacher:    20th
Chassis: FW25 05 (Spare car FW 04)
No time
"During my qualifying lap the car oversteered going into turn three. I could
not control it and I spun off the track. There is nothing else to say as it
was a driver error. My first sector time wasn¹t too bad but this is
irrelevant. Although I am disappointed and today¹s time sheet doesn¹t
clearly show it, I hope we can position ourselves between Ferrari and
McLaren. It should be an exciting weekend."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
"Juan¹s car was not too badly balanced, even though there is still room for
improvement. Ralf made a mistake into turn three, which leave us also with
some work to do. But we are still optimistic for the weekend as the long run
performance of our cars seems to be ok."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
"In this morning¹s free practice, both the drivers completed their sessions
without any problems, but in qualifying Ralf lost the car due to some
oversteer. As a consequence he will start tomorrow¹s final qualifying first.
Juan Pablo was expected to leave the garage after Ralf, but due to the red
flag, he had to abort his lap and return to the pits and start again.
Despite this, he managed to complete a clean lap and gain a good qualifying
position for tomorrow. Both engines ran with no problems."