Williams has speed in reserve
Williams is sure that it has plenty in hand after Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya qualified second and eighth in the first session for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix. Ferrari, Williams and McLaren were all shown up by the Renault of Jarno Trulli in first qualifying.
"There's definitely much more to come," said Montoya. "I lost most of this morning's practice session due to a gearbox problem, so my car was not ideally set up during qualifying. It wasn't comfortable to drive but I pushed as hard as I could.
"It's going to be a lot of work to make up for the lost time and get it back together tomorrow. However, Ralf's car shows that we have a good car."
Schumacher also lost time in practice, which makes his qualifying effort (less than a tenth behind Trulli) an ominous one.
"We didn't have much running this morning due to some problems," said Schumacher. "We need some more time to improve our car. Tomorrow's free practice sessions will be very important to us."
Sam Michael, Williams' Chief Operations Engineer, agreed with both drivers. Michael said that more work was needed to get the balance of the car right for the vital Esses section (the first sector in lap timing). BMW will also take encouragement that their latest P83 engine ran faultlessly today. Neither Ferrari nor Williams can afford retirements, with the constructors' championship as close as it is.
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