Montoya Stays Cool Despite Retirement

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya was philosophical after his retirement from the Spanish Grand Prix, the fifth round of the 2004 season.

The Williams driver, starting from the front row of the grid for the first time this season, was unable to keep his position and began to drop back soon due to problems with the brakes. Eventually he retired while running in seventh on lap 47.

"I knew this race would be difficult," said Montoya. "It's been like this every year so we know this track is hard on the car. We did a good job yesterday in qualifying by putting the car on the front row of the grid, but then I lost two positions at the start.

"I started having brake problems in the very first part of the race, with the pedal going very long, but they then seemed to come back after the first pit-stop so I thought everything was OK. However, when Fisichella, who was ahead of me, pitted and I was pushing hard to gain an advantage, the brakes stopped working again so I had to retire.

"I am not frustrated though. I've had this before and it's not worth getting annoyed about. You just have to learn from the experience and work hard to address the problem."

German Ralf Schumacher gave Williams three points by finishing down in sixth place, a result that left the team fourth in the Constructors' Championship.

"The result, more or less, reflects our current performances," said Schumacher. "We could not have achieved a much better position, even with a better start. Furthermore, I had to fight very early on with some brake problems, which meant I had to be very gentle on them until the end.

"I knew Barcelona was not among our favourite tracks, however I expected more. We must work very hard on our performance in order to make our way back to the top."