Saturday June 14th, 2003

NASCAR's Jeff Gordon showed an impressive turn of speed in a Formula One car swap at Indianapolis this week but Williams' regular driver Juan Pablo Montoya has nothing to fear.

Team boss Frank Williams mixed praise with awe at the Canadian Grand Prix on Friday as he passed judgement on the US driver's salary and performance in his car two days earlier.

"The reports I have received from those present were that he is a really, really good driver, that he was unafraid of the car," Williams said. "We were truly - and not for the benefit of any North Americans here - very, very impressed. The good news is that he is very, very quick. The bad news is that we can't afford him.

"He is a winning NASCAR driver and his earnings, I am told, are out of sight ... but I should say on behalf of all my colleagues here, we would all love to have a world class US driver in a Grand Prix team."

Williams said Gordon's lap times were one second slower than Montoya's.

Published at 09:21:23 GMT

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