Montoya Quickest in First Qualifying at Imola
Saturday April 24th, 2004
By Gary Emmerson
Juan Pablo Montoya set the fastest time in Saturday's first qualifying session for the San Marino Grand Prix as he went more than six-tenths of a second quicker than his rivals at Imola.
Colombian Montoya, a later runner in the session, set the best time - a 1:19.805 - to lead a Williams-BMW one-two in the timesheets from team-mate Ralf Schumacher.
World Champion Michael Schumacher was third quickest for Ferrari, 0.635 seconds down on Montoya, with McLaren driver David Coulthard setting the fourth best time.
BAR-Honda driver Jenson Button continued his form with the fifth fastest time ahead of Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella and Rubens Barrichello, in the second Ferrari. Takuma Sato, of BAR-Honda, McLaren driver Kimi Raikkonen and Toyota's Olivier Panis completed the top-ten.
Michael Schumacher set the benchmark time of 1:20.440 which Ferrari teammate Barrichello was almost five-tenths adrift of, and BAR-Honda's Button was 0.192 slower. But Ralf Schumacher, the seventh man on track, eclipsed the time of his brother to put his Williams-BMW at the top of the times by 0.017 seconds.
Fisichella produced a strong lap to move into fourth position ahead of the Ferrari of Barrichello, before Montoya became the first man to go under one minute 20 seconds when he went quicker than Ralf. |
