Frustrating season for Montoya

Juan Pablo Montoya has admitted his frustration at ending his Williams career with a troubled season.

The Colombian announced early this year he would join McLaren for 2005 but had expected to leave Williams on a high with a challenge to Michael Schumacher’s dominance.

Instead Montoya has found himself happy just to score points and languishes down in sixth in the championship after just two podiums all year.

Montoya, who has spent his four-season Formula One career solely with Williams, has found it difficult to accept his sudden demotion out of championship contention having pushed Michael Schumacher hard last year.

He said: “It is frustrating because you want to win, you know you can because you have done it before, but you can’t.

“It is quite hard because you get in the car and go out and it is a bit difficult to drive and you know if you put in a good qualifying you are going to be fifth or sixth.

“We have done second this year a couple of times, but it is frustrating. I think that is where it is, fifth, that is about where it is.

“I love driving and I do it because I love it.

“If you are the problem, you have to work on yourself, but if your team has won races, you have won races, been close to winning championships, then your drivers are suddenly miles back it really says something.”

Montoya is keen to get one over on McLaren before moving to Woking though.

Both Williams and McLaren, the traditional powerhouses of Formula One, have struggled at times this year but Montoya hopes he will have something to cheer come the end of the season in Brazil.

He said: “I want to finish ahead of McLaren in a way, and also to try to beat Fernando Alonso, but that is quite hard because before we were scoring eight, 10, six points easily, now we are scoring three or four points.

“There are two races to go and there are six points between us. Unless he had a major problem or we had a brilliant race it would be pretty hard.”

Montoya has an unexpected day off today after race officials took the unprecedented step of postponing qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.

A typhoon is expected to his Suzuka this morning and local experts predicted it could cause massive disruption and put fans and circuit workers in danger.

The track is also likely to be under water, making it impossible for today’s scheduled two qualifying sessions to go ahead as planned.

Instead, qualifying will take place tomorrow morning prior to the race.