At Sunday's Grand Prix of Europe, the BMW WilliamsF1 Team couldn't use the good starting positions against Ferrari. Juan Pablo Montoya was again struck by bad luck, while Ralf Schumacher gained valuable points after taking fourth position.

The start went well for the drivers of the BMW WilliamsF1 Team. Ralf made a good start in second position, shot to the outside, and passed Juan Pablo in the first corner.

It wasn't long, however, before we witnessed how strong Ferrari should be in the ninth race of the season. Rubens Barrichello, starting from fourth, made a great start, passing not only his teammate Michael Schumacher but also Juan Pablo. A few corners later and Ralf also fell victim to the Brazilian, who was on a two-stop strategy, and therefore had less weight on board.

Meanwhile, Juan Pablo had his hands full with another Ferrari driver: Michael Schumacher was also under way with a small amount of petrol and passed the Colombian with ease. The world champion soon caught up with his brother Ralf and again was able to win the battle, leaving the drivers of the BMW WilliamsF1 Team in third and fourth position.

The Ferrari drivers used the chance and soon pulled away. Within a short time, they had built up a comfortable lead over Ralf and Juan Pablo, so that even a spin by Michael Schumacher and his first pit stop on the 24th lap made no difference in the running order.

Juan Pablo became involved in an exciting duel with David Coulthard. The McLaren Mercedes driver put the South American under a lot of pressure; it was on the 27th lap that Coulthard went for the attack, trying to go around the outside of Juan Pablo in a corner. The driver of the BMW WilliamsF1 Team was forced on to the curbs; the rear of the WilliamsF1 BMW FW24 became loose and hit the McLaren Mercedes.

The race was over for Juan Pablo and David Coulthard, whose cars both suffered a broken suspension. Montoya apologized later to Coulthard, but could have done nothing to prevent the incident, which all concerned declared a racing accident.

On lap 30, Ralf came in for his first and only pit stop. Only 11.5 seconds was needed by the crew of the BMW WilliamsF1 Team to fill the car up and change tires. Ralf rejoined the race in sixth position. The drivers in front of him still had to come in. As Felipe Massa pitted, Ralf moved up into fifth position.

On the 35th lap, Kimi Raikkonen pitted and Ralf looked as if he would inherit fourth, but the McLaren team put in a good stop, enabling Raikkonen to get back out onto the track ahead of the 26-year-old. On lap 45, Jenson Button came in for his routine stop, which meant that Ralf could finish the race in fourth position.

BMW Motorsport director Gerhard Berger was impressed by the strength of the Ferraris: "I would have never thought that Ferrari could be so dominant. It was an impressive performance." Ralf explained his problems during the race: "The start went really good, but from the very first lap I had extreme understeer. Later on, I had a huge problem with the tires. They started to blister."

Unlucky once again was Juan Pablo Montoya. For the third time in a row, he was on pole and for the third time in a row, he didn't see the chequered flag. For the 26-year-old, it can only get better at the Grand Prix of England, July 7th.