10/09/2004
NEWS STORY
On the first day of the Italian GP weekend the BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers Antonio Pizzonia and Juan Pablo Montoya set the 5th and the 7th fastest times respectively.
Antonio Pizzonia: We did our normal Friday homework today, mainly consisting of tyre evaluation and set-up work, and I am pretty confident with what we have achieved. The grip was not ideal today, especially in the first session, because the track was quite dirty but we had some good running here last week, during three days of testing. With 20 minutes to go of the second session, when I was at the Parabolica, I felt something had happened with the brakes and it caused me to go off the track. There is a wide run off area there and fortunately I didn't hit the barriers too hard.
Juan Pablo Montoya: We have gone through our working programme today and I am reasonably happy with the balance of my car. The data we collected in last week's test is proving very useful as well as the new aero parts that we have brought to Monza. The track conditions improved quite a lot throughout the sessions and consequently the traction became better and better. We have some more work to do, but this is normal on a Friday.
Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): After we had done most of the testing here last week, we used today's practice basically for selecting tyres and fine tuning the wing level. In the second session Antonio had a heavy crash. Thankfully he is ok. This was due to a front left brake disc failure. We are currently investigating the cause of this.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): Until Antonio's accident, we had a proper test day, today. We did our standard programme and did not have any engine problems. Antonio was in the midst of completing a long run in order to find out more about the tyre performance over a longer distance. However, I think we have still recorded sufficient data for our tyre choice. Now we are obviously checking that the engine in Antonio's car was not damaged. So far it appeared ok.