Montoya: Indy win is my goal

Montoya denied that his race chances have been compromised by running low wing levels and qualifying only fourth, with Kimi Raikkonen on pole.

"Not at all," he said. "At Monza we went the conservative route [on wing settings] and it didn't give us anything. The way we run the car it seems best to run it with this downforce level. We've got the quickest car on the straight and even if it's still not going to be easy to pass, on such a long straight we should be OK.

"I don't know what Ferrari's strategy is going to be, but it's going to be very important to go past Panis [who starts one slot ahead of Montoya]. Then Rubens [Barrichello, who starts second] is going to be a big challenge - he's going to try the best for his team and I'm going to try the best for mine. It's so unpredictable this race, but Michael [Schumacher, who starts seventh] is going to need to be pretty aggressive to go forwards."

Williams technical director Patrick Head does not think that qualifying form can necessarily be used as a pointer to race pace and, unlike Hungary, believes there is much more to Indy than the question of whether the pole man can make an early break. Raikkonen, for instance, is believed to be on the softer of the two available Michelin tyre compounds while Williams is on the harder tyre.

"Looking at all the times from Saturday morning practice, the McLaren seemed to have fairly poor tyre degradation," Head pointed out. "Often that tends to get better on race day, so it's not something that we are banking on, but I don't think you can say how a car is going to race on the strength of one qualifying lap on a new set of tyres."

Last year, of course, Head's drivers collided at Indy's Turn 1...

"Ralf [Schumacher] wants to maximise his potential in the race but he won't be risking Juan's car by having a similar situation as last year," Head said, "At least I hope he won't..."