Montoya Encouraged by FW26 Pace

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya is upbeat about the performance of his Williams FW26 after breaking the Valencia track record on the second day of testing on Wednesday.

The Williams driver lowered the Ricardo Tormo circuit's record by over three tenths of a second, thus continuing with the promising pace showed by the new BMW-powered car since it was unveiled earlier this month.

Montoya said he is confident his team will be able to fight for the title, but warned that it is likely to be a close battle.

"The ease with which we obtained such performance is very satisfying," Montoya told Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper. "We are only at the beginning of development, but I can already say that with this car, we'll be able to fight for the Championship. The situation we had at this time last year compared to now is hugely different.

"This Williams is an excellent car, as it reacts to the set ups and it's very competitive. This gives me great confidence about the following months. In any case it'll be interesting: you only need to look at the lap times in these tests, what McLaren is doing, the consistency of Ferrari, the improvements by Renault.

"It'll be a hard-fought Championship with many players, it'll be nice for the fans."

Williams continue testing at Valencia today.