BMW WilliamsF1-Monaco GP-1st Qualifying
Monaco Grand Prix - FIRST QUALIFYING 29th May 2003 Weather: Dry, 29° Air, C 39°C Track Monte Carlo (MCO). The BMW WilliamsF1 Team made a solid start to the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, with drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya qualifying in 6th and 8th places respectively. Ralf Schumacher: 6th Chassis: FW25 05 (Spare car FW 04) Best time: 1.17,063 min "After this morning¹s Free Practice, when things didn¹t go very well, we managed to improve the set up of my car for the First Qualifying session. I am really happy with my time today even if there¹s still some work ahead of us for the Final Qualifying. The entrance to the Rascasse corner, which has been changed since last year has improved and it now has a better flow. Definitely they did a good job. Also the newly asphalted parts are an improvement infact all of the circuit could well undergo the same treatment!" Juan Pablo Montoya: 8th Chassis: FW25 06 Best time: 1.17,108 min "We had a difficult free practice session this morning, but my car improved throughout it and I hoped I could get something better out of it this afternoon. I am definitely not happy with my qualifying position. The car wasn¹t as fast as it should have been and I also experienced a problem at the fourth turn where I could not slow down the car quickly enough, which made me lose some time. Let¹s see how we can improve for Saturday¹s qualifying which is definitely more important than today¹s." Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1): "We have had a reasonable first day but there is some time to make up to the front row. We have made some changes since this morningŒs practice session and they were definitely in the right direction. We now have a basis to get the set up right for Saturday and we are hoping for a good session." Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director): "The first results don¹t really mean too much in Monaco. The grip of the track can change a lot before Saturday¹s Final Qualifing. The gap to the best Renault driver the quickest car today on Michelin tyres is about 1.5 tenths of a second which means that there¹s still some more to gain for us. Our drivers set similar times but I believe they both can achieve much more."