51st Macau Grand Prix - Guia Race - Qualifying 2

51st Macau Grand Prix - Guia Race
18/19/21 November, 2004

QUALIFYING 2
Weather: Warm - Ambient temperature 25ºC, Track 33ºC

Macau, 19 October, 2004: Jörg Müller (GER) claimed pole for the Guia Race at
the Macau Grand Prix after a stunning performance that saw the times tumbling
down after the chequered flag came out. It will be an all BMW 320i front row as
his BMW Team Germany team-mate, Andy Priaulx (GBR) finished second, while
newcomer to the Macau street circuit, Dirk Müller (GER) will start fifth.

However, all the top drivers, including third placed Rickard Rydell (SWE) in
his SEAT admitted that the times could have been much quicker but for a red
flag with eight minutes to go and then a yellow flag on their final lap that
caused them to lift off. "We all went out together, I think Andy was 500 metres
in front of me and Rickard 250, and we all warmed up the tyres for a lap and a
half. Though the times we have done are good they are not representative of
what we can do if the circuit is free. The new tyres gave me quite a lot of
grip, there are no scratches on the car so far and so I hope it is going to
stay like this for the whole of the weekend," said Jörg.

Andy was relatively happy with his time saying: "I didn't do a proper timed lap
at all until the end of the session and then with the accident I had to slow. I
don't know what my true potential is yet and won't know until I have a clear
space to do a number of laps. I don't know what is going to happen in the race
except that the best driver will win and as Jörg has tremendous pace we have
all got a lot of work to do."

Dirk was still smiling despite missing the majority of the morning free
practice after hitting the wall on only his second lap and then having to sit
in the pits during the 'quick' window at the end of qualifying due to an
electrical problem. "The track is coming to me lap by lap. I had just one lap
on a new set of tyres. This has been a great experience, I love the circuit and
am very happy with what I have achieved so far," he said. Dirk also claims be
should have a trophy for spinning his car coming out of the Melco hairpin and
not hitting any barrier - something that is usually impossible!

Team BMW Germany Team Manager, Charly Lamm, who has not been to Macau since
1998, was happy with his team's performance. "I think it was a perfect
qualifying for Jörg and also for Andy. Dirk is still learning the Guia circuit
and is progressing very well. It was a shame that he had an electrical problem
at the end of the session when he was ready to go out on new tyres," he said.
However, his 2004 drivers have a long tradition to keep up as in the eighties
and nineties Schnitzer Motorsport won the Guia race nine times.

Duncan Huisman (NLD), who has won here the last three years, has a lot to do
after crashing his Carly Motors BMW 320i at Mandarin after what he described as
'a small driver's error'. He will start tenth with his team-mate, Tom Coronel
(NLD) sixth. Tom, who was immediately behind Duncan when he crashed, admitted
that he focused on the final five minutes of the session. He had not tried his
Yokhama qualifying tyres in Macau before this session, but from Zandvoort
testing felt he could have got another second and a half out of them but for
the yellow flag.

The number of cars in final qualifying increased by two from the first session
to 36, although in total 37 will start the race. While several of the Europeans
know the track from previous years they still have a lot of work to do in the
race as the speed differential from the quickest to the slowest car is half a
minute, which is a lot on a 6.2 kilometre long track. Add to this the fact that
the Guia track is the only one in the world where there is a passing ban on a
corner. This is the Melco hairpin where Dirk spun.

The touring car teams will have a free day on Saturday, while their first eight
lap race will be at 11.45 - 8 hours ahead of GMT and 7 hours ahead of CET - on
Sunday (21st November). After race one there will be a 15 minute break before
the start of race two.

BMW Team Germany
No 15 - Jörg Müller (GER) 1st - 2m 32.118s
No 16 - Dirk Müller (GER) 5th - 2m 34.346s
No 17 - Andy Priaulx (GBR) 2nd - 2m 32.882s

BMW Privateer Teams
Carly Motors
No 1 - Duncan Huisman (NLD) 10th - 2m 36.751s (1st qualifying session time as
no time from 2nd session)
No 2 - Tom Coronel (NLD) 6th - 2m 34.775s
Edenbridge Racing
No 5 - Rob Collard (GBR) 13th - 2m 41.661s
Team Schubert Motors
No 18 - Claudia Hurtgen (GER) 9th - 2m 36.553s
No 19 - Angelo Barretto (PHI) 18th - 2m 46.443s
Team Wiechers
No 21 - Marc Hennerici (GER) 7th - 2m 35.565s
Team Engstler Racing
No 10 - Franz Engstler (GER) 8th - 2m 36.417s (1st qualifying session time as
no time from 2nd session)
No 11 - R S Prutirat (THA) 15th - 2m 43.642s
Team San Miguel
No 12 - Jody Coseteng (PHI) 26th - 2m 48.996s (1st qualifying session time as
no time from 2nd session)

Results: 1. Jörg Müller (GER/BMW 320i) 2m 32.118s, 2. Andy Priaulx (GBR/BMW
320i) 2m 32.882, 3. Rickard Rydell (SWE/SEAT) 2m 33.102s, 4. Jordi Gené
(ESP/SEAT) 2m 34.232s, 5. Dirk Müller (GER/BMW 320i) 2m 34.346s, 6.Tom Coronel
(NLD/BMW 320i) 2m 34.775s.

Contacts: Heike Bartsch, BMW Press, mobile +49 (0) 172 8485998,
heike.bartsch@bmw.de
Ann Bradshaw, race press officer, mobile +44 (0) 7713 317006,
annbradshaw@tiscali.co.uk.