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Formula One: Belgian GP race report, BMW Williams F1

28 August 2000

Belgian Grand Prix RACE     
Spa-Francorchamps, 27th August 2000

Weather: Wet at the start then drying. Av. air temp.14 C. Av. track
temp.16 C.

The BMW WilliamsF1 Team achieved today their second podium of
this season and for the third time finished with both of its cars in the
championship points positions: Ralf Schumacher scored a consistent
and strong third place and Jenson Button was fifth.

Ralf Schumacher 
    Position: 3rd  
Chassis:
         FW22 02 
    Best Time:
    1:55.473 on lap 24 (9th)
"I am more than happy! The team was strong for the whole weekend
and my car was always feeling fine. We are definitely establishing
ourselves as the third team in the championship and this must be our
target for the rest of the races. We were expecting the rain and we
were ready for it. We thought we would be among the fastest here in
Spa but Mika Hakkinen was outstandingly quick!"

Jenson Button 
    Position: 5th
Chassis:
         FW22 04 
    Best Time:
    1:55.425 on lap 33 (8th)
"I could have achieved more today. Of course I'm a bit disappointed to
finish fifth having started from the third position. Anyway it's good to
have scored some more points. Unfortunately at the beginning it took
me too much time to overtake Trulli. After the contact with Trulli's
Jordan car the steering wheel was quite heavy.  In the dry conditions
the car wasn't as good as it was in the wet at the start and I suffered
some oversteer."

Frank Williams
"Naturally the whole team is delighted. We are now seeing the results
of very hard work, which is always exploited superbly well by both
drivers."

Patrick Head (Technical Director WilliamsF1)
"This was a very exciting race. It is great to be on the podium again
with Ralf for the second time after this year's season's opener in
Melbourne. Jenson's little contretemps with Trulli certainly ended
Trulli's race; it also took Jenson away from a chance of a podium. I
must congratulate BMW for preparing not only powerful but also
tough engines. We feel that we are making some progress."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director)
"This is a much bigger birthday cake than I expected. We achieved this
result in a great race and through our own strengths. Our
achievements have been good here, particularly the quality of our
performance and the reliability from our new engine specifications.
This is a very big step towards consolidating our third position in the
constructors' championship. It happens very rarely that after a race
you sit down in peace and you realise that you really don't know what
you could have done better. "

TEST: The BMW WilliamsF1 Team will be testing in Monza from
Tuesday 29th August to Friday 1st September. Bruno Junqueira will
be on duty for the first day with both Ralf Schumacher and Jenson
Button taking over for the rest of the days.