Williams pleased with nine points

The nine points scored move the team a point closer to Renault in fourth place in the constructors' points table and leave drivers sixth and seventh respectively in the drivers' title chase

"The car was quite difficult to drive initially," related Montoya, "and I decided to pace myself in order to get to the end of the race. We'd balanced the car in a different way than usual and it was therefore more difficult to drive. However, towards the end of the race, when there was more grip on the track and tyres worked better, the car felt pretty good."

Schumacher seemed to have more of a handling problem, especially in the closing laps: "After all the testing we've done at this track, we thought that we could achieve a better result. When I went off the circuit a part of my bodywork got ripped offf, causing my car to oversteer. In the last 16 laps I had a hard but fair fight with Cristiano da Matta."

Chief Operations Engineer Sam Michael said that managing the strategy also kept the team on its toes: "After the Safety Car had coem out for three laps right after the start we changed our pit strategy from three to two stops. This was a close call, particularly with Ralf and he may have done better on a three-stopper."