BMW WilliamsF1 2nd & 3rd after Friday qualifying


JPM second ...

By Andrew Hooper
July 18 2003

The BMW WilliamsF1 team would see their drivers finish the opening qualifying session for the British GP in 2nd and 3rd. Juan Pablo would lead team-mate ralf. Both drivers were pleased with the setup of their cars and the results they achieved.

   
British GP Friday Qualifying
 
The first driver out in Friday qualifying at Silverstone would be Ferrari's Michael
Schumacher. His time would be the benchmark for the others to follow. The session would start under dry conditions with the chance of rain.

Michael would set a time of 1m:19.474 to move into provisional pole. This time was over half a second faster than Coulthard's earlier practice time. Netx would be McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen who would be 0.5sec down after only the first sector. He would lose time the whole lap and end up second but 1.5secs down on Michael.

Ralf SchumacherNext would be the BMW WilliamsF1 pair of Ralf Schumacher and Montoya. Ralf would complete his lap just 0.314 down on his brother to move into second. For Juan Pablo he would lose small fractions through the sectors and would move ahead of Ralf into second to be just 0.275 behind Michael. Second and third was looking encouraging for the WilliamsF1 team.

Next would bee Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello who would match his team-mate in the first sector but would lose control of his car at the beginning of the third sector, spinning off into the gravel from which he could not get out. This would stop the session while his car was retrieved. Barrichello would now be first out in Saturday's qualifying due to his failure to set a time.

With light rain affecting the track the next group of five would prepare to qualify with Renault's Fernando Alonso out first. He would start his lap 0.163 down on the fastest first sector time. He would lose time but would finish in fourth 0.433 behind the fastest time. The Renault team weer running with a new aerodynamic package for this race.

MontoyaAfter Raikkonen's poor lap could Coulthard improve McLaren's fortunes. Well his first sector time showed that he was also going to struggle as he was 0.3secs down. He would finish fifth 0.49 down on the pole time but an encouraging one second ahead of Raikkonen.

For Renault's Jarno Trulli he would set a quick time that would see him just behind Alonso and in fifth. For Jaguar's Mark Webber he would set the quickest third sector of the session, but his lap would still only see him finish in seventh position. For Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella his first sector time would see him already nearly 0.7sec down and by the end of the lap it had grown out to be nearly two seconds.

With the rain not getting any worse BAR's Jenson Button would make his run and by the end of the second sector was almost a second down. He would finish in eighth 1.1secs behind the leader. For Sauber's Heinz Harald Frentzen his Sauber C22 would struggle to offer enough grip and he would finish in tenth, behind Button, but ahead of Fisichella. For BAR's Jacques Villeneuve he would finish behind his team-mate Button. However, he would beat Frentzen for tenth position.

Ralf SchumacherFor Toyota's Cristiano Da Matta he would deliver a good performance, with a lap of 1m:20.765 to move into ninth. He would finish ahead of Raikkonen. Team-mate Olivier Panis would be next out and he would upstage his team-mate da Matta by taking fifth place. Heidfeld would open the final group of qualifiers. He would finish thirteenth, ahead of team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen. For Jordan's Ralph Firman he would end up been more than 2.8 seconds off the pace. Sixteenth would be his position. For Jaguar's Antonio Pizzonia he would be 1.175secs down after two sectors.

Verstappen would be four seconds off the pace, with the Dutchman finishing in eighteenth. Meanwhile his Minardi team-mate Justin Wilson stops on his out lap with a technical defect.

Juan Pablo Montoya would finish the first qualifying session on position two, with Ralf Schumacher third. Only Michael Schumacher was able to complete a faster lap than the two BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers.
 
P. No Driver Team - Engine Tyres Times Ave/Gaps

1. 1 M. SCHUMACHER Ferrari B 1'19"474 232.876 Km/h
2. 3 MONTOYA Williams BMW M 1'19"749 + 0'00"275
3. 4 R. SCHUMACHER Williams BMW M 1'19"788 + 0'00"314
4. 8 ALONSO Renault M 1'19"907 + 0'00"433
5. 20 PANIS Toyota M 1'19"959 + 0'00"485
6. 7 TRULLI Renault M 1'19"963 + 0'00"489
7. 5 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes M 1'19"968 + 0'00"494
8. 14 WEBBER Jaguar Cosworth M 1'20"171 + 0'00"697
9. 17 BUTTON BAR Honda B 1'20"569 + 0'01"095
10. 21 DA MATTA Toyota M 1'20"765 + 0'01"291
11. 15 PIZZONIA Jaguar Cosworth M 1'20"877 + 0'01"403
12. 6 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes M 1'21"065 + 0'01"591
13. 16 VILLENEUVE BAR Honda B 1'21"084 + 0'01"610
14. 9 HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas B 1'21"211 + 0'01"737
15. 10 FRENTZEN Sauber Petronas B 1'21"363 + 0'01"889
16. 11 FISICHELLA Jordan Ford B 1'21"500 + 0'02"026
17. 12 FIRMAN Jordan Ford B 1'22"335 + 0'02"861
18. 19 VERSTAPPEN Minardi Cosworth B 1'23"418 + 0'03"944
19. 2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari B 2'00"000 + 0'40"526
20. 18 WILSON Minardi Cosworth B 2'00"000 + 0'40"526 
 
 
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