Montoya ready for conversion

If Juan Pablo Montoya was a rugby player, he would be the guy who gets the tries but has a problem converting them. For the last three races, the Colombian has taken pole position: Monte Carlo, Montreal and now here in Germany for the Grand Prix of Europe. But on the first two occasions he failed to turn pole into victory after his BMW Williams' engine failed in both races.

As one team insider ruminated on Friday, Ferrari have taken 20 points from the last two races, McLaren 19. BMW Williams' tally has been only four. Yet the blue-and-white cars are the main challengers to Ferrari's red steamroller, and this weekend they have their best chance of race success with Montoya's team-mate, Ralf Schumacher, joining him on the front row. When it mattered, during an hour of qualifying that was advanced 45 minutes to prevent live F1 coverage clashing with World Cup football matches, the Anglo-German cars had what it took. But now they have to make it stick in the race.

"I still don't know where the speed came from," Montoya confessed, conceding that luck played a part.

"The first races were good," said Dr Mario Thiessen, discussing the team's initial results in a season in which they had been expected to challenge Ferrari for the World Championship. "We were quite strong, and surprisingly strong in Monaco, and we were about as strong as expected in Montreal."

But Montoya retired in both races, and so did Ralf Schumacher in the latter. All three failures were associated with the engine rated as the most powerful in F1.

"It's two different failures," Thiessen conceded of BMW's Canadian problems. "Juan Pablo's engine had a valve failure and on Ralf's he crossed the finish line with the engine OK and immediately after that a piston gave up. It was not a quality problem with the piston, but due to the operation conditions of the engine." BMW have taken counter-measures to salvage pride this weekend, but it remains to be seen how successful they will be.

The other factor will be tyres. Qualifying certainly gave Michelin another timely boost, as it had in Monte Carlo, and the French company's softer rubber hoisted the BMW Williamses ahead of Ferrari, pushed the McLaren-Mercedes closer, and helped Renault and Mika Salo's Toyota to strong positions. Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Nick Heidfeld were Bridgestone's only runners in the top 10.

All season, qualifying has thrown up some great fights, and this one was no exception, especially as a gearbox problem on Michael Schumacher's car obliged him to abort his first effort after only one lap out of the pits. He had to use the spare car, which was not as well balanced.

After Kimi Raikkonen had taken an early pole position for McLaren, Ralf Schumacher grabbed the initiative and seemed set to hold on to it. In the pits Thiessen turned to Gerhard Berger, his fellow director of motorsport at BMW, with a wide grin. But the former racer gave only a thin-lipped response. Everything would depend on what the other Schumacher did. Then Montoya gave Thiessen even more reason to smile when he stopped making small errors that proved costly and got the perfect lap together to beat Ralf. That set up a great showdown as they went into their final attempts. But Ralf ran out of time, Montoya messed up the first sector again, and suddenly the world champion looked menacing again as he set the fastest time in sector two. But even the best are fallible, and Michael wasted crucial time with a slide in the final corner, which left him third on the grid after all. "I pushed too hard and just overdid it," he admitted. "I have no excuses."

Assuming that all of the front-runners survive a new first corner that replaces the dangerous old right-left chicane with a tight hairpin that folds back on itself and could also prove problematic for a tightly bunched field of F1 cars, the tyre factor will be crucial. Bridgestone believe they are in better shape for the race, and that those Michelin runners who do not have fully scrubbed rubber will struggle.

"I would prefer to get a few points instead of pole," Thiessen admitted before qualifying. On BMW's home ground, perhaps he will finally get his cake and the chance to eat it. Then again, however, perhaps he won't, for Michael Schumacher is as hungry as ever to take his 60th victory and to move to within two wins of sealing a record-equalling fifth world title.