28/08/2004
NEWS STORY
Bad weather severely hampered today’s running, with both Free Practice sessions being cut down from 90minutes to only 15 and Qualifying being run under intermittent rain. In the morning, Antonio Pizzonia went off the track and damaged his car. For tomorrow's race, Juan Pablo Montoya will start from the 6th row on the grid, having qualified 11th, whereas team-mate Pizzonia will start from 14th position.
Juan Pablo Montoya: Bad luck for me in today's qualifying. The track was starting to dry out and we decided to use intermediate tyres, like Trulli, Alonso and Coulthard who went out just before me. However, already on my out lap it started to rain quite hard, which made it very difficult to keep the car on the track and as a result I lost a lot of time. There was no grip at all! It's a shame because in the morning we looked quite competitive in the wet and in pre-qualifying I was the second fastest driver on Michelin tyres. Still, I think we have a very good race car for tomorrow, we have found a good compromise which will hopefully pay off.
Antonio Pizzonia: My qualifying was disappointing, for sure. The lack of running this morning didn't help, and I even crashed in the last few minutes. The team did a really good job in putting the car back together in time so that I was able to qualify in my race car. Obviously I'm disappointed, but I'm hoping to have a good race tomorrow. It is possible to overtake here, as it's such a long circuit, so we will see what happens.
Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): We have had a busy morning after Antonio's crash at the end of the short free practice session. We were ready just in time for pre-qualifying after a fantastic effort by the mechanics. In the main qualifying session Antonio made a couple of mistakes on his lap. Unfortunately for Juan it started to rain again right after he had left the pits on intermediate tyres. He did a good job by achieving the time that he did under these conditions. We have had no mechanical problems and we are looking forward to the race now.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): Qualifying was a gamble today, heavily affected by the tyre choice. The weather was favourable to Renault and they took the pole. Our drivers had bad luck, just like a few others, especially in final qualifying. Now it's all about getting a good race from these two unfavourable starting positions.