Extraordinary qualifying session of BMW Sauber F1 Team
Following on from a trouble free morning practice session, the BMW Sauber F1 Team had the best qualifying result of its one year life. Nick Heidfeld will start the Australian Grand Prix from third on the grid, while Robert Kubica will be in fifth for the opening race of the season.
Nick Heidfeld: BMW Sauber F1.07-05/BMW P86/7 Qualifying: 3., 1.26,556 min (Practice 3: 6., 1.26,753 min) “It is very clearly a fantastic result for us to be third. I was sure we would make it into the top ten but more P5 or something like that. We had a good winter season, but you never know until you get to the first race. As regards reliability I am happier now after speaking to some people in the team, who explained to me what they had done to make everything work. On top of that we did a race simulation in Bahrain which worked fine. The car was not perfect today. In Q2 I was happy but with some fuel on board it was not that easy. From my view Ferrari is still ahead. We will only see tomorrow in the race how things are really going, however, so far I am really pleased.”
Robert Kubica: BMW Sauber F1.07-04/BMW P86/7 Qualifying: 5., 1.27.347 min (Practice 3: 12., 1.27.753 min) “Performance wise I think we are where we thought we would be, and this is very good news. Also qualifying in general was good. In Q2 I had a very fast first run, but on the second lap I had traffic so couldn’t improve. In the end this does not make any difference to the result. In Q3 I missed my final chance of another lap by just one second. But that’s racing. You have to take the risk, some time you win, some time you loose.“
Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport Director “This was very pleasing. It was the strongest qualifying our BMW Sauber F1 Team has had so far. With this we have confirmed the performances we put in during testing. A big compliment is due to all the technicians in Munich and Hinwil. Our chances for the race are now very good.”
Willy Rampf, Technical Director “This was excellent and we are very pleased with today’s result. From the second and third rows of the grid we can achieve a good result with our race strategy. All the sessions of this first qualifying of the season were very exciting for us, and the pit crew worked really well. For Nick the timing of his last run with the softer compound worked perfectly. However, after the last pit stop Robert missed the chance to do the final lap with the same tyres by just one second. The timing was very tight because we really wanted to use the very last seconds of the session when the track is at its quickest. On the technical side we had no problems."
