By Andrew Hooper
September 2 2002
| Belgian GP Race - Team Comments |
| At the Belgian Grand Prix
in Spa, the BMW WilliamsF1 Team strengthened their claim for second place
in the FIA Constructor's World Championship. Juan Pablo Montoya achieved
another podium finish placing third and Ralf Schumacher was fifth and also
collected some points. Monza test: 3-6 September (Ralf Schumacher and Marc Gené 3-4; Juan Pablo Montoya and Antonio Pizzonia 5-6) |
Juan Pablo Montoya "This
has been an outstanding outcome to a difficult weekend. I am a bit
surprised I could keep up with Kimi Raikkonen who had a very fast pace in
the first part of the race. I really did not expect such a good result
today. When I pitted for the first time I managed to stay ahead of Kimi
thanks to the great job of my team. Also we made some adjustments during
the pit-stop and they helped a lot. In the last part of the race I managed
to keep behind me the other McLaren of Coulthard and I would like to
acknowledge the help that I received from the pitwall over the last few
laps to achieve this result. We still have hopes for the second place in
the drivers' championship. The moment Rubens fails, we have to be there."
|
Ralf
Schumacher "I
can only be reasonably satisfied today as I made a few mistakes. At the
start I was blocked by a slow starting Raikkonen, then I spun and went
into the gravel trap and finally when I restarted after my second pit-stop
I pushed the wrong button on the steering wheel by mistake. In the end I
have scored two points which are very valuable to the team in the fight
for the second place in the Constructors' World Championship."
|
Gerhard Berger BMW
Motorsports Director "Juan
Pablo drove a strong race today. He was constantly under pressure but he
asserted his authority against the McLaren's. Unluckily Ralf lost some
time at the start and with his spin. Both the drivers took advantage of
very good pit-stop work. In one go we have achieved six points today and
strengthened our position in the Constructors' Championship widening the
gap by three points to McLaren."
|
Sam Michael
Chief Operations EngineerWilliamsF1 "It
was a really good race by Juan today. He had a good start and looked after
the car well but pushed when he needed to. Ralf lost some time when he
spun on the way to a pit stop and then we had a problem leaving at the
second stop. The team worked very well at all four pit stops and we did
not suffer from any technical problems today. We have had a reliable car
and engine. The Ferraris are still a long way in front of us, but they
remain our target."
|
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