I’m looking forward to it

I’m looking forward to it.”The Williams drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher agree. “It went really good when I did it in IndyCars,” says the former “It’s going to be a big challenge Getting the car right is going to be very critical. I think it’s going to make qualifying very interesting, because somebody makes a mistake they’re going to end up parked and down the grid, and the level of concentration is going to be really high.”Schumacher says: “We had it in Formula Nippon in 1996 and I enjoyed it very much. It’s pretty intense, because a mistake could leave you at the back. It’s a difficult situation because as a driver you have to evaluate when you are about to brake for a corner whether you go that last 10 metres, or you brake 10 metres earlier not to make a mistake.

I think 16 times this year it will happen that you will make a mistake, but I think that’s what we are looking for. If a top driver is somewhere in the middle of the field it will make things more exciting.”The signs are that Ferrari will remain the pacesetter, but Ron Dennis signalled the motivations of McLaren (and Williams) after some harsh self-assessment. “If Ferrari were a 10 last year, we should have been a 9.5 at least. Most of the time we were a seven or an eight, which was simply not good enough. It’s painful to admit that, but it’s a fact.”Both teams have been working flat out to give the sport what it most needs in 2003: a race.. Kevin Sinfield, the youngest captain in Super League, steered Leeds into the quarter-finals of the Powergen Challenge Cup after being chased all the way by the Broncos.

After that, the Broncos coped well with what Leeds had to offer, aided by the Rhinos’ propensity for conceding penalties. The fifth in a row gave Tony Martin a kickable chance, which he took to put London in the lead.With Jim Dymock’s clever handling setting the tone, the Broncos continued to more than hold their own and deservedly extended their lead after 25 minutes when Chris Thorman kicked through with just the right weight and angle and their new Australia, Bill Peden, managed to collect and touch down as he slid into the in-goal.Leeds needed to produce something special and they did so five minutes later, when Andrew Dunemann slipped out of a couple of tackles to feed Senior who exchanged passes with the alert Francis Cummins on the wing before touching down, David Furner’s goal levelling the scores.That gave Leeds a new confidence and, shortly before the break, they took the lead for the first time. Wayne McDonald’s charging run brought a penalty for an obstruction on a support runner and Leeds moved the ball across field for Mark Calderwood to slide over from Chev Walker’s pass and be awarded the try on video scrutiny, Ferner again adding the goal.If Leeds thought they had broken the opposition they were disabused at the start of the second half, the Broncos’ Cumbrian stand-off, Rob Purdham, doing superbly to get his pass out of the tackle for Dymock to score and Martin to equalise with his kick.Leeds’ response was another of the game’s moments of class, Sinfield balancing Matt Diskin’s little kick on his fingertips as he went over. Furner could not get his kicks on target in the first Super League match of the season last weekend, but here his conversion made it three out of three.London still had their chances, notably when Purdham had his pass picked off by Cummins as the Leeds defence creaked when Gary Connolly appeared to trip Thorman. Having survived that, Leeds stretched their lead to seven with a composed drop goal from Sinfield and Furner’s fourth goal from a late penalty made their progress look more assured than it was.Leeds: Connolly; Calderwood, McKenna, Senior, Cummins; Dunemann, Burrow; McDonald, Diskin, Bailey, Furner, Adamson, Sinfield.