Montoya Glad to be Back on Front Row

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya was happy after returning to the front row of the grid for the first time since last year's Japanese Grand Prix.

The Williams driver set the second quickest time in today's qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, finishing only behind the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher. Montoya said today's result was a needed boost for his team.

"I am very, very pleased to have qualified on the front row again, it was about time," said Montoya. "My car had a really nice balance in the pre-qualifying session, but I had too much oversteer during final qualifying so I lost some time.

"Of course you always want more, but I believe we have a very good race car. We will have to see how our tyres behave tomorrow because this track is hard on the cars, especially the tyres. It will be a long race, but we will hopefully see some good racing action.

"It's important for the team's motivation that we've got this result today because everyone has been working really hard."

Montoya's teammate Ralf Schumacher, on the other hand, was not happy with his performance in today's session, the German finishing down in sixth position. It was the fifth time in five races that Montoya has outqualified Schumacher.

Of course I can not be happy with my qualifying result," said Schumacher. "It's clear that I didn't manage to get the best out of the car, especially in the mid-sector, as the car seemed very nervous through it.

"However, starting a race from sixth place, you can still finish well, as I think that we have gone for a very good strategy."