Gene Happy with Practice Performance

Marc Gene was happy with his performance in opening practice for the French Grand Prix in what was his return to a Grand Prix since last year.

German Ralf Schumacher has been ruled out for up to three months after crashing heavily and suffering spinal fractures at last months' US Grand Prix, and Spaniard Gene, Williams' test driver, is standing in.

He finished with the third best time in the morning session and 14th best in the afternoon.

"We had no easy running, today, but in spite of the continuously changing track conditions, I managed to have a long run and we still gathered some useful information and data about tyres and set-up," said the Spanish driver, who had also replaced Schumacher at the Italian Grand Prix last year.

"However it is difficult to say where everyone is, since the track was different in different moments. I am quite pleased with my performance, but I was one of the first to go out on dry tyres. Now we are looking at the set-up for tomorrow."

Williams won in France last year with Schumacher leading Juan Pablo Montoya in a one-two finish in a race that triggered the Colombian's decision to join McLaren for 2005. The Colombian had a poor start to his weekend, crashing heavily after losing control of his car in the opening session.

"Not exactly the best way to start a race weekend, really," said Montoya. "I went out in the morning when it was raining quite heavily and my car was aqua-planing so much that I just could not keep it on the track. I had quite a big crash and the car was seriously damaged, but luckily enough I walked away with no physical consequences at all.

"Anyway, after my car came back to the garage and was thoroughly checked and fixed, I could go out again for the last half of the second session. A big thanks to the mechanics who were very quick in putting my car back on track. But still weather conditions were changing so quickly, that I could not get too much running either."