Montoya Not Expecting to Fight the Ferraris

A disappointed Juan Pablo Montoya says he is not expecting to be able to fight with the dominant Ferraris at tomorrow's United States Grand Prix.

The Williams driver, a former CART champion hoping to become the first man to win the United States Grand Prix and the Indy 500 at Indianapolis, was unable to match the pace of Ferrari drivers Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, who secured a front row lock-out for the Italian squad.

Montoya, who looked set to finish the session in third place, lost out to McLaren's David Coulthard in the dying moments of qualifying and will have to take the start from the dirty side of the track in fourth position.

"Not the qualifying session result I was expecting at all," said the Colombian. "It is disappointing and very frustrating especially because I was in third position until the last moment and then I lost it by one thousandth of a second. Tomorrow I am starting my race from the dirty side of the track and this is not really helpful.

"But this is racing. Today we just could not get a good balance. I think at the moment we just haven't got the speed to beat Ferrari."

Montoya finished right ahead of Williams teammate Ralf Schumacher, who was also disappointed with his session and is expecting a tough race tomorrow.

"We cannot be happy, of course," admitted Ralf. "It is very difficult to find the right balance for the car here. I had continuous set-up problems. The tyres were all right and I think they are also looking quite good for tomorrow. Anyway, it is going to be a very difficult race for us."