BMW WilliamsF1 Team-British GP-First Qualifying

British Grand Prix  -  FIRST QUALIFYING                      18th July 2003

Weather: Overcast, occasional drizzle. Temp: 17°C  Air,  24°C Track

Silverstone (GB). On a typical British day, with grey sky and light drizzle,
Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher qualified second and third in the
First Qualifying session for the British Grand Prix. This will provide the
two BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers with a good start position for tomorrow¹s
Final Qualifying, taking to the track for the two penultimate laps of the
session.

Juan Pablo Montoya:    2nd
Chassis: FW25 06 (Spare car FW 04)
Best time: 1.19,749min
"My car had was very well balanced in qualifying and it felt really good.
It¹s an improvement as this morning I had a bit of a struggle finding the
balance and I thought qualifying could be tough. My engineers and all the
team did an excellent job in setting up my car so well, and the they deserve
my thanks. However, I hope there¹s more to come in our car for Saturday
because Ferrari is going to be very strong here."

Ralf Schumacher:    3rd
Chassis: FW25 07  
Best time: 1.19,788min
"My car was not at all bad. I experienced some understeer. but this is
something we can sort out, so in summary it was a good Friday session. Since
the First Qualifying is not critical for the final grid, it is important to
complete a safe lap in order to ensure a good starting position for the
Final Qualifying on Saturday. Ferrari seem to be very strong here, which is
no surprise. I think the circuit¹s lay-out and the current weather
conditions suit the Ferrari package pretty well. However, we have had
similar gaps to Ferrari on Fridays before now, so I am not too worried."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
"This was  good start to the weekend with both drivers up at the front.
Tonight we will look at the race set up and consider our strategy. We are
quite confident to have another strong race performance this weekend."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
"Lap times are very close and the first eight drivers are only covered by
just one second. Michael Schumacher has fulfilled the general expectation to
be favourite, and behind him are both our drivers in a good position. The
weather will be the deciding factor in final qualifying as we cannot be sure
that every driver will qualify under the same conditions."