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SPANISH GRAND PRIX - RACE 9th May 2004

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SPANISH GRAND PRIX - RACE 9th May 2004

Written by Jeff Seabrook

Monday May 10, 2004

Weather: Sunny and dry. Temp: Air 20-21°C, Track 31-38°C, Humidity 43-53%

Barcelona (SPA). Ralf Schumacher today achieved sixth place for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team, reconfirming his qualifying position. Juan Pablo Montoya had his first DNF of the season due to a brake problem.

Ralf Schumacher: 6th
Chassis: FW26 07
Best time: 1:18.548 min (lap 27, 8th overall)
The result, more or less, reflects our current performances. We could not have achieved a much better position, even with a better start. Furthermore, I had to fight very early on with some brake problems, which meant I had to be very gentle on them until the end. I knew Barcelona was not among our favourite tracks, however I expected more. We must work very hard on our performance in order to make our way back to the top.

Juan Pablo Montoya: DNF (retired at lap 46)
Chassis: FW26 06
Best time: 1:18.262 min (lap 28, 7th overall)
I knew this race would be difficult. It's been like this every year so we know this track is hard on the car. We did a good job yesterday in qualifying by putting the car on the front row of the grid, but then I lost two positions at the start. I started having brake problems in the very first part of the race, with the pedal going very long, but they then seemed to come back after the first pit-stop so I thought everything was ok. However, when Fisichella, who was ahead of me, pitted and I was pushing hard to gain an advantage, the brakes stopped working again so I had to retire. I am not frustrated though. I've had this before and it's not worth getting annoyed about. You just have to learn from the experience and work hard to address the problem.

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
It was a pretty disappointing day when you consider our race pace in comparison to the frontrunners. We also made a bad judgement with the brake cooling which ultimately forced Juan to retire and Ralf was on the limit with his brakes for the whole race.

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
When you start from positions two and six, three points is a poor result. Both the drivers lost some places at the start and you don't recover from a bad start when there are three teams doing the same lap times, like Renault, BAR and ourselves were doing today. At the end of the race, Ralf was able regain the position he had started from, while Juan had to retire. Once again Ferrari dominated, which has allowed them to increase their margin in the fight for the Championship.

Test: Le Castellet, 11-14 May: Marc Gené 11,12,13 - Antonio Pizzonia 11,12,14, Montoya 13,14

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