BMW WilliamsF1 Team-Hungarian GP-First Qualifying

Hungarian Grand Prix  -  FIRST QUALIFYING                      22nd August
2003

Weather: Sunny, dry. Temp: 32°C  Air,  42°C Track

Budapest, (HUN). Today marked a satisfactory start to the Hungarian Grand
Prix weekend for the BMW WilliamsF1 Teamıs drivers, Ralf Schumacher and Juan
Pablo Montoya, who recorded 2nd and 8th fastest times respectively at the
Hungaroring during the first qualifying session.

Ralf Schumacher:    2nd
Chassis: FW25 07  
Best time: 1.22.413 min
"I am fairly happy with my qualifying lap. This morning I had some problems
with the set up and we made quite a few changes on the car which seem to
have been in the right direction.  The track is slippery as it has always
been here, especially if you come off the line. For sure you donıt want to
be the first car to go out on track.  The new track is nice, even if in a
way I preferred the old corner because I thought it was a bit more
technically demanding, but with respect to sorting out the bumps, they did a
really good job. We should be strong here."

Juan Pablo Montoya:    8th
Chassis: FW25 06 (Spare car FW25 04)
Best time: 1.23.305 min
"I didnıt put together the best lap, really. My first sector wasnıt good
enough as I braked a bit too early into the first corner of the chicane.
The balance of my car wasnıt as good as I expected, especially at the start
of the lap. In this morningıs Free Practice I was seven tenths quicker than
in qualifying. The track was very dirty when I went out but it improved
during qualifying as it got cleaner and cleaner. However, I believe our
package should be pretty competitive here. Weıve got the pace."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
"During todayıs qualifying session the change of grip of the circuit was
quite significant due the dust, so it was difficult to see what our true
pace actually was.  Now we are looking forward to tomorrow and working on
the race set-up. We can be pretty competitive here."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
"We can be happy with this todayıs performance. The engines didnıt
experience any problems and this morning both the drivers could complete
their set-up programme. Ralf had a good qualifying session and Juan Pablo
could not qualify any better than 8th as he was penalised by his early start
position. Looking at the times of the first three drivers who went out on
the track for qualifying, one can tell that the track was very dirty and
didnıt provide very good grip. During the session the tarmac became cleaner
and cleaner and allowed the drivers to set better lap times."

Current pictures are available for download at: www.press.bmw.com