One-two makes Williams smile
Williams moved right into title contention with a one-two performance in the European Grand Prix, as Ralf Schumacher led Juan Pablo Montoya home at the Nurburgring. This result moved the team past McLaren for second place behind Ferrari in the constructors' championship and promoted Ralf to third place overall in the drivers' points table
Their BMW-powered FW25s not only finish first and second, but did so as points pace-setters Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen faltered, the former doing so when he spun as Montoya passed him around the outside at the Dunlop hairpin.
Ralf was understandably delighted with his weekend's work: "It's great to win a Grand Prix after a long time, especially after I failed to turn two pole positions into victory in the previous two races [in Monaco and Montreal]. I had a very good start and, for some reason, Michael did not. So I took the chance and jumped into second position into the first corner.
"I think that seen from the outside the manoeuvre looked more spectacular than it actually was. I believe that I could have caught Kimi, even it would have been difficult as we had a perfect car with perfect tyres today. And, if we consider that we were about 10 kilos heavier than the others at the start, it was a very good performance."
"I'm pleased with second position," commented Montoya. "Especially as I dropped to fifth after the start. After problems with tyre graining, I decided to change only the rear tyres at the first pit stop, but it wasn't the right choice so I changed all of them at the second stop. This felt much better .
" With regards the overtaking manoeuvre on Michael, I braked late and gave him enough room to go around the corner on the inside. We touched and he spun. It was a racing incident, even if I must say that overtaking Michael at his home Grand Prix was a great deal of fun."
"It was a fantastic day today," grinned Chief Operations Engineer leader Sam Michael: "Ralf and Juan drove superb races and the team did a great job in terms of preparing the cars and strategy. The mechanics also did an excellent job at the pit stops. We know that our car is competitive and we're looking forward to being strong over the next couple of races.
"Juan overtaking Michael was a fantastic manoeuvre that should be a normal part of F1. The fact that Michael spun was a racing incident."
Williams travels to Magny-Cours for next weekend's French Grand Prix with a 13-point deficit to Ferrari, having moved six points ahead of McLaren.
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