BMW drivers expected more from Monaco qualifying
The BMW Sauber F1 Team will start the Monaco Grand Prix from the fourth row of the grid, with Nick Heidfeld seventh and Robert Kubica eighth after three exciting qualifying segments. After a wet final free practice, the weather was mainly dry for the qualifying hour with the cars performing particularly well in the second segment in which they were third and fourth.
Nick Heidfeld: BMW Sauber F1.07-05/BMW P86/7 Qualifying: 7th, 1.16.832 min (3rd Practice: 18th, 1.38.899 min) “We have improved the car since Thursday’s practice and the lap times in Q2 were very promising, but I am not too happy about grid position seven. In Q3 we had some minor problems. We changed early to the soft tyres because there was some light rain which worried us. This meant the track conditions were not ideal and we had a little too much fuel on board. On top of that I made a small mistake after the tunnel. From grid position seven you can’t expect too much. But on the other hand – in Monaco almost everything can happen.”
Robert Kubica: BMW Sauber F1.07-07/BMW P86/7 Qualifying: 8th, 1.16.955 min (3rd Practice: 16th, 1.38.463min) “I am very happy about the car’s performance, but not about the position. Let’s see how we will be tomorrow compared to the others with our strategy. I am satisfied as this morning because of the weather we couldn’t do more running. In Q2 we were competitive, in Q3 less, but we will see. The car was good, much better balance than Thursday, so I am really looking forward to the race as I think we are in good shape for it.”
Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport Director “We had a trouble-free qualifying. We kept to our schedule although there was some rain every so often. Compared to 2006 when we had problems throughout the whole weekend, seventh and eighth on the grid puts us in a relatively good position for the race.”
Willy Rampf, Technical Director “This was a turbulent qualifying session. Our lap times in Q2 were closer to the top than we expected, and based on this we decided on the fuel load for Q3. Because it started raining slightly in some parts of the track, we opted for relatively early runs. With this strategy we obviously didn't make the best use of the constantly improving track conditions. This is a shame, but nothing is lost because anything can happen in the race here.”
