Williams up for the fight

Over the past couple of seasons it has become traditional for Williams to look off the pace in free practice as its drivers concentrate on running with high fuel loads. However, after languishing down in 12th in the morning, Montoya was less than a tenth of a second slower than the Ferraris in the afternoon and was third fastest.

"We did quite a good job today and the car definitely improved throughout the two sessions," said the Colombian. We have been working on the set-up of the car and tyre evaluation. I think this is going to be a tough weekend but we hope to be closer to Ferrari here."

Team-mate Ralf Schumacher had a software problem that caused him to run off the track at the exit of Turn Two. His car was undamaged, but he ended the session a second slower than Montoya in 12th place, but he's confident that he'll be among the front-runners in qualifying.

"There are still some small problems with the set-up of the car to be sorted out," he said. "If we manage to do that, tomorrow we should be in a position to fight for the first two rows on the grid."