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MONACO GRAND PRIX - RACE, May 23, 2004

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MONACO GRAND PRIX - RACE, May 23, 2004

Written by Jeff Seabrook

Monday May 24, 2004

Weather: Dry, partly cloudy. Temp: Air 22°C, Track 39°C, Humidity 58%

Monaco (MCO). In an eventful 2004 Monaco Grand Prix last years' winner Juan Pablo Montoya finished fourth, scoring five more championship points for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team. Team-mate Ralf Schumacher, after having been forced to start from 12th place, having lost 10 grid positions due to the fact his engine was changed, was on his way to pick up one further point, but had to stop with a gearbox failure with just a few laps to go.

Juan Pablo Montoya: 4th
Chassis: FW26 06
Best time: 1:15.395 min (lap 41, 5th overall)
It was a good race for me, since when you start ninth in Monaco you cannot hope to finish fourth. The car felt ok but like yesterday, we were just not quick enough. With regards to the contact with Michael in the tunnel, Michael braked very hard as he was warming up his brakes and I moved to the right side of the track to avoid him but the gap narrowed and we touched.

Ralf Schumacher: DNF (gearbox failure after lap 69)
Chassis: FW26 07
Best time: 1:17,588 min (lap 18, 12th overall)
It's obviously a disappointing race, but these things seem to happen. Just after a few laps I lost fifth gear, then the sixth and the seventh. By the last few laps I had only fourth gear. I did the best I could but it was obviously very hard to drive in those conditions and I had to retire eventually with just a few laps to go. We just need to keep working and get it right for the next races.

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
A disappointing result for Ralf, since we had a gearbox failure on his car which made him struggle for most of the race. Juan did a great job to get up through the field and finish in fourth place, which was more than we thought we could get from this race after qualifying. Monaco is a difficult track and at least we can take away some points to the next race and we hope to be more competitive at the Nurburgring

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
It has been a turbulent race with many incidents. Ralf lost fifth gear soon after the start and then lost further gears until the gearbox just stopped working completely. This finally cost him the single point that he was racing for. Juan Pablo made the most of his ninth position on the grid. It was a nice manoeuvre when he overtook Barrichello at the beginning of the race. Congratulations to Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button. Both were racing at one hundred percent level until the very end and kept the race exciting right to the chequered flag.

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