European
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European GP - RACE
06/29/2003
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Weather: dry, air 25-26°C,
track 30-35°C |
Nurburgring (GER). A one-two victory for the BMW
WilliamsF1 Team at the Nurburgring as Ralf Schumacher won the European Grand
Prix ahead of team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya. This is the second one-two for the
BMW WilliamsF1 Team, the last was at the 2002 Malaysian GP and it is the seventh
victory in the last three and half years for the team. For Schumacher it is his
fifth win in F1. The team improved its' position in the Constructors World
Championship to second. It was a perfect weekend for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team,
which announced on Friday the extension of their partnership until the end of
2009.
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Ralf Schumacher:
1st Chassis:
FW25 07
Best time: 1:32,826 min (lap 34, 2nd
overall)
It is great to win after a long time and
especially after I failed to turn two poles into victory in the last two
races. I had a very good start and for some reason Michael did not. I took
the chance and jumped into second position into the first corner. I think
that seen from the outside that manoeuvre looked more spectacular than it
actually was. I believe I could have caught Kimi, even if it would have been
difficult. We had a perfect car with perfect tyres today and if we consider
we were about ten kilos heavier than the others at the start, it was a very
good performance. More on Ralf's victory... |
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Juan Pablo Montoya:
2nd
Chassis: FW25 06
Best time: 1:33,094 min (lap 59, 4th
overall)
I am pleased with second position,
especially because after the start I dropped into 5th place. I had some
problems with tyre graining, so I decided to change only the rear tyres at
the first pit stop, but it wasn't the right choice so I changed all of them
at the second stop. On new tyres the car felt much better. With regards to
the overtaking manoeuvre on Michael, I braked late and gave him enough room
to go around the corner on the inside. We touched and he spun. It was a
racing incident, even if I must say that overtaking Michael at his home GP
was much fun. |
Sam Michael
(Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1): |
Gerhard Berger
(BMW Motorsport Director): |
| It was a fantastic day
today. Ralf and Juan drove superb races and the team did a great job in
terms of preparing the cars and strategy. The mechanics also did an
excellent job at the pit stops. It is a great result for our team and also
for the championship. We know our car is competitive and we are looking
forward to being strong over the next couple of races. We will maintain
our aggressive development programme for the up coming races. Juan
overtaking Michael was a fantastic manoeuvre that should be a normal part
of F1. The fact that Michael spun was a racing incident. |
It was just a
perfect weekend for our team. First we finalised the extension of the
contract and then we achieved a one-two victory on BMW's home ground. I
feel really happy for the team and especially for Ralf. Today he
demonstrated to everybody that he is a first-class driver. I would suggest
we have all earned a glass of champagne now. |
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