Michelin secures pole for British Grand Prix

BMW WilliamsF1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya would secured his fourth consecutive pole position for Michelin with a scintillating lap at Silverstone. Montoya was able to set his pole time in the final moments of qualifying, with a lap of 1m:18.998.

“I’m not sure where that time came from,” Montoya said, “but we made lots of changes to the car and they paid off.”

Montoya would lead six other Michelin cars in the top ten. Team-mate Ralf Schumacher was fourth, McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard were fifth and sixth.  Renault's Jarno Trulli seventh and Toyota's Mika Salo eighth.

For Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin Motorsport Director, was pleased with the results of the day. He responded to several questions.

Four pole positions in a row for Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams-BMW and Michelin. That was quite a lap at the end of the session…

“We are getting used to Juan Pablo doing this type of thing. He is the kind of driver who works out the best approach to each corner during his first couple of runs, then puts it all together at the same time at the end of the session. He’s very good at it – and if you can do that you always have a chance of pole position. He is a driver who always has the capacity to spring a surprise and it is clear that Williams and BMW have done a brilliant job today.”

How do you assess Michelin’s performance today?

“I am very satisfied. The tyres we used in the previous race at the Nürburgring had to be looked after very carefully. They were good in qualifying trim but had to be treated gently during the race. Here I think we have taken an opposite approach: despite what Juan Pablo has achieved I honestly thought we would be in better shape for the race here than we would for qualifying.

The tyres seem to be good and consistent – and from what we have seen we will be able to do the race with just a single stop. I don’ t have any fears about wear rate, although there are no guarantees in this business and we will have to see tomorrow whether my instincts are correct.”

You have only had one day of dry running at Silverstone. How much of a handicap is that in terms of preparing for a possibly rain-free race?

“Everybody is in the same boat but in theory it is a huge disadvantage because all teams want to do as much running as possible in free practice to assess all the available set-up options. Yesterday’s rain denied us that, although it gave us a valuable chances to assess our wet tyres. As we have seen today, however, it doesn’t seem to have been too much of a setback. With one car on pole position and another five in the top eight, it has been a good qualifying session for us.”