The outcome of today's Brazilian Grand Prix was not what the BMW WilliamsF1 Team may ultimately have achieved. Both of the team's cars were involved in an accident just metres after the start, which put Antonio Pizzonia out of the race whereas Mark Webber was forced to pit for major repairs which lost him 25 laps, while his car was being repaired.

Mark Webber: not classified
Best time: 1:13.590 (lap 45 , 8th overall)
Chassis: FW27 04 / BMW P84/5 Engine: 1st GP

I had a reasonable start and got away ok from the grid but right then David Coulthard, came between me and Antonio and I didn't see him until the last moment. It was very, very tight and I was looking to get away from the damp area at turn one. Unfortunately, when David tried to pull out of the position he was in he clipped the back of Antonio, who then spun into me. I could see the bodywork was damaged but I didn't know how heavily so I went back into the garage and jumped out of the car so that the mechanics could fix it. At that point it was important to join the race again in order to possibly gain a better starting position for qualifying in Japan and to see what we could learn about our race pace after a poor qualifying session.

Antonio Pizzonia: DNF (accident on lap 1)
Chassis: FW27 03 / BMW P84/5 Engine: 1st GP

I am very disappointed for sure, as I finished my home Grand Prix before the first corner. My car was in a straight line and I was on full power, I still hadn't started braking when I just felt a sudden impact from behind. I watched the replay of the accident and I saw it was Coulthard. I am very surprised he did this because he has many many Grands Prix under his belt and is not someone who usually makes such mistakes.

Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1):
This is a disappointing result. After the start incident we lost a lot of time in the pits repairing Mark's car. Although we could not repair everything, we did enough to make it a safe runner. We did this in order to improve Mark's qualifying position for the next race, which we managed to do. The pace of Mark's car was really strong considering that he was running on low revs in order to keep the engine fresh for the next race. Antonio suffered too much damage to his car to be able to continue So, the pace of the car was good and I think that points were definitely possible today. Well done to Renault and Fernando on winning the Drivers' Championship

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
Well done to Renault and Fernando Alonso, who today wrote a new page in the history of F1, becoming the youngest World Champion. There is not much to say about our race. Both of our drivers were involved in an accident even before the firct corner. Antonio's car was damaged too much to continue whereas Mark came back to the pits. The mechanics changed in record time the floor, radiator, suspension and some bodywork. Finally he was able to race. We now have to check if the engines were damaged in the accident or if we will be able to use them again with no risks in Japan. We hope we will have a positive end to the season.

TEST: Jerez 29,30 September, Mark Webber + Antonio Pizzonia all days

2005 Brazilian Grand Prix - Main Page
2005 Brazilian Grand Prix - Team and Driver Race Reports Page

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