Montoya Hoping for Dry Saturday

Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya is hoping for some dry running tomorrow after a troubled day in the wet in opening qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Colombian Montoya, who took pole for Williams last year at Interlagos, went off the track on his flying lap in treacherous weather conditions. The Williams driver, however, managed to continue his lap to clock the 17th fastest time nearly five seconds off the pace.

"I lost the rear of the car on the asphalt change, locked the rear tyres at turn six and went off track losing quite a bit of time," said Montoya. "I obviously lost my flying lap there. The car felt quite bad on the new asphalt in the infield, anyway. Let's hope for some dry running tomorrow."

German Ralf Schumacher completed a poor day for the Grove-based outfit, finishing in 13th place as he struggled with the poor grip on track.

"It's very difficult to rate today's times," said Schumacher. "Qualifying was a weather lottery. Usually I don't dislike driving in wet conditions but on my fast lap the track was extremely slippery after it had again started raining hard a few minutes before.

"The balance of my car was not right in the slow and medium-speed sectors, but this is something we are going to work on now."