Saturday March 16th, 2002

By Will Gray

Williams driver Ralf Schumacher belittled his brother Michael Schumacher's early-year confidence, while Juan-Pablo Montoya insisted that he is the main contender for the Ferrari driver's World Championship crown, despite reports from Germany that Schumacher had already counted the Colombian out of the battle.

German Schumacher was quoted as saying Montoya did not figure in his thinking for the Championship, but the Colombian, who finished second in the season opening Australian Grand Prix, firmly dismissed his rival's comments.

"Good for him," he exclaimed. "At the moment I am running second in the Championship, I qualified second, I could have outqualified him today, and we look to be stronger than McLaren - then I would say at the moment I could look like the best contender.

"It might change as the year goes on, but in the position he is, he has probably got to say his brother is the main contender. If I had a brother, I would say that too."

Montoya is confident that the Williams package is now strong enough to contend for the title and with a front row place alongside Schumacher for Sunday's race, the talking is likely to be done on the track.

Montoya's Williams teammate Ralf Schumacher also fails to see why his elder brother Michael would be so confident so early in the season, but he does not believe he is playing a battle of minds.

"They (Ferrari) seem to have a lot of confidence in their ability but at the moment I wouldn't see why he (Michael) is that confident," said the younger Schumacher.

"But Michael has no need to play with anyone's emotions. He is clearly very good, he is the most experienced driver right now in the field, and simply on maneuvers like Melbourne you can see that at the end of the day he has the upper hand.

"First he has a very good package behind him and secondly, from a driver point of view, he doesn't have to worry about any driver. It's down to Juan and myself. If we get our package together then both the two of us are able to beat him there is no doubt about that."

The Williams of Schumacher will line up behind his teammate in fourth place for Sunday's race, with Michael Schumacher's Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello alongside.

Published at 11:36:21 GMT