Montoya Confident of Strong Race Pace

Juan Pablo Montoya said that his Williams-BMW team should have the pace to challenge Ferrari for victory in Sunday's Italian Grand Prix after claiming a font row start slot in qualifying on Saturday.

Colombian Montoya equalled his best grid position of the year with a lap that just pipped World Champion Michael Schumacher for second place but could not match the pace of pole winner Rubens Barrichello's Ferrari.

But he remains confident that Sunday's race will not be another Ferrari procession and is determined to fight the Italian team hard to prevent them from claiming their 13th win of the season in front of their home fans.

"It's going to be an interesting race," said Montoya. "Looking at the race pace I think it's going to be quite close. I think they might be a little bit stronger but we'll see where they are on strategy and everything.

"It's nice, you know. My worst qualifying here has been P2 over the last four years so I can't complain. The team has done a really good job but I made too many mistakes. But even if it had been a perfect lap I think they would have been a little bit faster. It's good to be on the front row, it's good for the team, and we need the points."

Montoya, who set the fastest laptime in the first practice session of the day, finished fastest in the pre-qualifying session while Ferrari finished down in ninth and tenth.

But he added: "We knew Ferrari were sandbagging a little bit in the first one and in the second I pushed pretty hard. I made a mistake in braking for the second chicane and into Ascari a little bit.

"It would have probably been three tenths faster or something but I don't think we would have been able to match Rubens. But our long runs look strong and if we get off the line well it could be quite an interesting race."