Williams sacrifices qual speed
Juan Pablo Montoya admits that the team sacrificed its performance in final qualifying on Saturday in order to have a strong car for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix
Montoya and his team-mate qualified seventh and sixth respectively and while both drivers were lightly disappointed with their positions they know their car is set-up with Sunday's race in mind.
"I put in a fairly good lap without mistakes but the balance of my car prevented me from setting a quicker time," Montoya said. "We sacrificed a little of qualifying performance for the race pace. Still, starting from 7th position on a circuit where overtaking is very difficult, is not ideal. The only chance I see to pass the car in front is at turn one really, and that's it. Nevertheless, we should have a good race. It's nice to see Antonio doing well. He has been quick all weekend and he did a good job."
Pizzonia out-qualifed his senior team-mate despite having to contend with some light rain on the Budapest circuit.
"I am fairly pleased with my qualifying lap," the Brazilian said, "even if I didn't have much luck because it started to rain a little bit when I was in the last sector and this slowed me down a bit, especially going through the last two corners. My car felt better in the final qualifying than in pre-qualifying and also the track conditions improved from one session to the other.
"Anyway, I know I have a better race car than a qualifying car so I am confident. After all, starting from 6th and 7th position means we can score points, and this is what we are aiming for."
Pizzonia also received praise from technical director Sam Michael who criticised the Brazilian after his effort at the German Grand Prix last month.
"We were all pleased for Antonio as he performed much better than the last GP," he said. "We have had no mechanical problems and the new chassis parts worked well. Our tyre choice looks good for the race as does the set-up. In qualifying we did struggle a bit with the balance on both cars, but this should help us for the race tomorrow. With a good race we should have points from both cars tomorrow."
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