Ralf Optimistic of Strong Weekend

Ralf Schumacher is optimistic of a competitive weekend for his Williams team after setting the second fastest time in first qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.

The German driver, who could only post the 11th quickest time in this morning's practice session, managed to recover when it mattered and he will be the penultimate driver to go out on track in tomorrow's grid-deciding session.

Schumacher finished only behind Renault's Jarno Trulli.

"We changed the car quite a lot during this morning's free practice and the result was pretty good, which clearly shows we went the right way," said Schumacher. "Tomorrow's free practice sessions will be very important to us since we didn't have much running this morning due to some problems and we need some more time to improve our car.

"However, I think it is looking promising for us so far, also thanks to our Michelin tyres, which seem to be very good and can provide an important contribution to our performance. With regards to the revised track, I think they made a good job, just the 130R corner is a little bit too bumpy."

Teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, out of the running for this year's drivers' title, had a tough day. The Colombian could only complete seven laps in practice due to a problem with his car's gearbox, and was only eighth fastest in qualifying.

"It was obviously very difficult for me to set a good time in today's first qualifying due to the fact that I lost most of this morning's free practice session because of a gearbox problem," explained Montoya. "During qualifying, my car was not at all ideally set up nor was it comfortable to drive and I pushed as hard as I could.

"It's going to be quite a lot of work for us tomorrow to make up for the lost time and get it back together. However, Ralf's time shows that we have a good car and there's definitely much more to come."