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USGP qualifying: BMW Williams F1 Team

24 September 2000

US Grand Prix - QUALIFYING
         23rd September 2000

Weather: Overcast and humid.
Average air temperature 23°C. Average track temperature 23°C

Jenson Button and Ralf Schumacher will start from 6th and 10th
places respectively for the first running of the US Grand Prix in
Indianapolis. 
 
Jenson Button 
Position:  6th  
Chassis:  FW22 04
Fastest Lap:  1.15.017
"Obviously I would have liked to have been on the second row - as I
was in the untimed sessions this morning - but I am anyway very
happy with my sixth place, especially because there's not a huge
difference in time between me and the top five drivers - as there has
sometimes been in the past. In my last run I thought that I would push
as much as I can as I had nothing to lose, but I think I pushed a bit too
hard! Driving through the banked corners was good fun also today
and I can't wait to race through it. It's been a good weekend for us so
far and I hope we can still improve tomorrow."

Ralf Schumacher 
Position: 10th   
Chassis:  FW22 06
Fastest Lap:  1:15.484
"Obviously I am not happy with my starting position. I've had a
problem with my car since the start of the weekend here, which meant
I couldn't find the right set-up. The reason for it we must now find by
analysing the data." 

 Patrick Head (Technical Director WilliamsF1)
"Jenson had generally a pretty good practice session, although he is
probably a bit disappointed to lose fifth position. Ralf wasn't happy
with the handling of his car this morning and made some changes,
which took him a little bit of time to adapt to the way the car was in
the afternoon. Then due to an error on his last run, when he spun, he
wasn't able to capitalise on it. But sixth and tenth are not bad
positions for us at the moment from which to race. It's going to be an
interesting and hard race tomorrow."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director)
"From our side every free practice session and the qualifying ran
smoothly. Jenson's sixth place is fine. He wasn't able to exploit the
best from his last flying lap but the fact that he immediately felt so
much at ease again underlines his potential. Ralf doesn't seem to have
found the right balance for his car. Anyway with these starting
positions we have good chances to be again in the points for this last
part of the championship, in order to defend our third position."