Montoya Wary of Ferrari Threat

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya expects the Ferrari team to be very strong at this weekend's British Grand Prix following first qualifying.

The Williams drivers were outpaced by Ferrari's World Champion Michael Schumacher in today's first session at Silverstone, with Montoya setting the second quickest time and teammate Ralf Schumacher in third.

Colombian Montoya, who has finished second in the last two races, was hoping he could extract more from his BMW-powered FW25 on Saturday to be able to challenge the Ferraris.

"My car was very well balanced in qualifying and it felt really good," said Montoya. "It's an improvement as this morning I had a bit of a struggle finding the balance and I thought qualifying could be tough. My engineers and all the team did an excellent job in setting up my car so well, and they deserve my thanks.

"However, I hope there's more to come in our car for Saturday because Ferrari is going to be very strong here."

The winner of the last two Grands Prix, Ralf Schumacher, also admitted the Ferrari was looking strong, but the German stayed calm after finishing around three tenths of a second behind his brother.

"My car was not at all bad," said Schumacher. "I experienced some understeer, but this is something we can sort out, so in summary it was a good Friday session. Since the first qualifying is not critical for the final grid, it is important to complete a safe lap in order to ensure a good starting position for the final qualifying on Saturday.

"Ferrari seem to be very strong here, which is no surprise. I think the circuit's lay-out and the current weather conditions suit the Ferrari package pretty well. However, we have had similar gaps to Ferrari on Fridays before now, so I am not too worried."