BMW WilliamsF1 Team-Italian GP-Race

Italian Grand Prix  -  RACE
14th September 2003

Weather: Sunny, dry, air 23-24°C, track 41-42°C

Monza (ITA). Juan Pablo Montoya scored a podium finish to the Italian Grand
Prix at Monza today, while team-mate Marc Gené, deputising for Ralf
Schumacher, claimed a highly creditable fifth place. Their joint tally keeps
the team in the lead of the FIA Formula One World Championship for
Constructors¹ by four points and promises a climatic showdown to the season
with Juan Pablo three points behind Michael Schumacher in the drivers¹
championship.

Juan Pablo Montoya:    2nd
Chassis: FW25 06   
Best time: 1:22,126 min (lap 31, 3rd overall)
"After a good start I took the first opportunity I saw to try to pass
Michael Schumacher at the first chicane. We came out pretty even, but he had
better acceleration than me and he kept the lead. We competed cleanly as
neither of us could afford a DNF. In the second stint I managed to catch up
on my next set of tyres which worked really well. Unfortunately in the third
part of the race I was caught in traffic and I made the decision to pace
myself. We were expecting Ferrari to be strong here, so to only lose two
points to Michael and be only three points behind with two races to go is
okay. Ferrari had a good top speed compared to us at this low downforce
circuit , quite unlike the next two tracks, where I think we will figure
strongly."

Marc Gené:                       5th
Chassis: FW25 07   
Best time: 1:22,413 min (lap 12, 5th overall)
"This is the best result in my Formula One career, and I am really happy. I
think a good performance was to be expected, as I had one of the best cars
on the grid. At the start I had a problem with Jarno Trulli which cost me
three places, but apart from that the race was good. If you get the chance
like I did today, you have to make the most of it, and my main priority was
to avoid making mistakes, and I think the team is happy with the points I
managed to score. I believe the more a driver tests, the better he becomes."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
"The team had a good, hard race today and we did what we could, but Michael
obviously did a little bit more. Juan drove faultlessly to a valuable second
place and Marc did a fantastic job, considering the little time he had to
prepare and showed a great pace in the race. The team also performed
perfectly and produced good pit-stops. We are looking forward to a extremely
close finish to the season."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director):
"It was a hard race as expected, but Ferrari had the advantage today. It
will become very hard for us to crack the Ferrari nut, but I do expect an
extremely exciting fight for us until the very end. The true winner for me
today was Marc Gené, who made the most of his chance and did an excellent
job for the team today. What was very important given the championship
situation was to bring both cars home in the points today."
   
Silverstone Test: 16-18 September, Juan Pablo Montoya and Marc Gené all days

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