10/07/2004
NEWS STORY
Varying weather strategies among the teams played a significant part in pre-qualifying for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone today, with BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Marc Gené ultimately qualifying in 8th and 13th places respectively, but due to a driver receiving a 10 place penalty, they will start on 7th and 12th for tomorrow's race.
Juan Pablo Montoya: Before starting my final qualifying lap, I saw Marc had a very nervous car and I was expecting the same. In fact, I realised immediately - at turn one - that my car was also difficult to drive and I decided to be a bit careful. With such inconsistent wind conditions, it's very difficult to predict what the car is going to do. I am a bit disappointed with my qualifying position, of course, because prior to the qualifying session both Marc and I had done a good job and had a very good balanced car, but despite this afternoon's conclusion, I believe we've got a very good race car and we can realistically aim for a good finish.
Marc Gené: The pre-qualifying session was a bit unusual today, but what counts is the final qualifying result, but I didn't have a good lap at all. I was quite quick in this morning's practice and I was confident I could achieve a good grid position in qualifying. However, this afternoon my car was much more difficult to drive than I anticipated. I could feel it was very windy and I could barely keep the car on the track - the weather conditions had changed a lot from this morning.
Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): Like other teams, we also took it easy in the pre-qualifying session in order to avoid our drivers having to qualify later in the session as there was the risk of rain. However, the rain did not materialise, although it did get windy in the middle of the second session. Obviously the pace of the car is not strong enough in qualifying at the moment, but the practice pace looked encouraging. We will see what we can do for tomorrow in order to pick up some points in the race.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): Today, qualifying was a gamble. On the one hand it's clear that the track got quicker with every car. On the other hand, rain was expected for the second part of the session. As our weather prediction didn't materialise, our drivers didn't have a chance to compete for a front grid slot due running early in the session. We had no technical problem with the cars.