Both BMW-Sauber drivers were happy with their performance in today’s qualifying session.
Nick Heidfeld just missed out on the top-ten shootout by setting the eleventh fastest time. His team-mate, Robert Kubica, went one better in tenth.
The result will come as a relief to BMW who appear to be making progress after a difficult season so far. The team will now hope to build on today’s result by finishing strongly in Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Robert Kubica – 10th: “If lately you have been starting from the rear of the grid, you cannot be disappointed with tenth in qualifying. We have to be realistic. I think today overall was a good day. Unfortunately I had some traffic on my final run and I made a small mistake. This cost me a few tenths. Scoring points will be difficult tomorrow.”
Nick Heidfeld – 11th: “It is the sixth time this year I have just missed the top ten qualifying and come 11th by fractions of tenths of a second. Of course I’m a little bit disappointed, but on the other side it means we have freedom regarding the fuel we carry and I hope for a good race. Everybody in the team is determined to put in a good performance and show what they can do for the future. Our car is generally somewhat better and I think from P11 points are possible.”
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): “We are satisfied with the qualifying result. Compared to recent races it was a step forward into the midfield, and this is what we had expected from our development package. With Robert we have got one car into the top ten and Nick in 11th is just behind. Q3 didn’t go ideally for Robert, otherwise he could have finished even higher up. Congratulations to McLaren-Mercedes for having both cars on the front row. This proves how quickly things can change.”
Willy Rampf (Head of Engineering): “Our goal was to get at least one car into the top ten. With Robert we did so. However we expected to be in a better position. Nick missed Q3 only by the blink of an eye. Overall we took a step in the right direction with the aero update. Technically we had a qualifying without any problems.”
