Ralf Looks for Glimmer of Hope at Williams

Ralf Schumacher tried to detect a glimmer of hope after Williams failed to prevent Bahrain's first Grand Prix from turning into a Ferrari procession.

"All in all, I'm not too disappointed because I have seen from the data that I was running close to Ferrari's pace, whenever I had free track ahead," said the German after finishing seventh.

But there were long faces elsewhere in the garage as champions Ferrari, led by Ralf's brother Michael, romped to their second one-two in three races while Williams picked up a mere two points. Schumacher has now won the year's first three races.

Williams's Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, who started alongside Ralf on the second row of the grid, ran third for much of the race but suffered gearbox problems in the closing laps and limped home a distant 13th.

"He lost one gear after another and did the final lap in fourth gear," said BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen.

"In race trim, apparently, Ferrari still are in a class of their own and we just have to push for our development and try to repeat what we did last year," he added.

Williams finished last season as runners-up to Ferrari after struggling in the early races with a car that became progressively more competitive.

"Today's result is disappointing for us, in particular due to the gearbox failure on Juan's car," said chief operations engineer Sam Michael. "Up until this problem occurred, which was 10 laps before the end of the race, it looked like he would finish third. Third place would still not have matched our goals. Ferrari has beaten us fairly here."

Ralf's problems were compounded by collisions, notably one with Japan's Takuma Sato, the BAR driver who finished fifth, that pitched him off the track on lap seven and left him fighting to get back in the points.

The German had to pit for repairs after the accident. Ralf also made contact with Giancarlo Fisichella's Sauber later in the race and secured seventh place three laps from the finish as Montoya slowed.

"Of course, we were expecting to come out of the first three flyaway races more successfully," said Theissen. "Now it's all about improving our package."