Heidfeld outpaces Ferrari duo in qualifying
The BMW Sauber F1 Team experienced a very exciting qualifying session in which Nick Heidfeld secured third place on the grid for the Canadian Grand Prix. The last time he finished third was at the season’s opener in Australia. His team- mate, Robert Kubica, was still unhappy with the balance of his F1.07 and finished 8th.
Nick Heidfeld: BMW Sauber F1.07-05/BMW P86/7 Qualifying: 3rd, 1.16.266 min (3rd Practice: 19th, 1.18.428 min) “I am very satisfied with third, especially as I lost a lot of time this morning and in the third practice I only did one timed lap. We wanted to save some mileage, and then in the end I had a hydraulic problem. It was also very difficult to get used to the track conditions as the wind has changed a lot for today. This afternoon went quite smoothly, but I did cut the chicane on the last corner. My hit with the wall was not a hard one compared to yesterday. I was quite confident it would not be a big problem, but the steering was off line slightly and it actually got a little bit worse in the last qualifying session in Q3. We came here hoping we would be stronger than in Monaco, and would be as good as we have been in the last couple of years, as BMW has always been strong on high speed circuits and so has Sauber.”
Robert Kubica: BMW Sauber F1.07-07/BMW P86/7 Qualifying: 8th, 1.16.993 min (3rd Practice: 13th, 1.17.601min) “I had quite a difficult time. Right from the beginning of the weekend I had problems with the balance of the car, which we could not solve before qualifying. It stayed the same for today, and there was no grip in the rear. But we have to see how the race goes.”
Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport Director “This is an excellent qualifying result for Nick. After a troubled free practice session this morning he put in a very strong effort into qualifying. Certainly third place is a promising position to start the race from. For Robert qualifying wasn’t as good. Due to technical difficulties in the first free practice he lost track time, and was still not happy with the car's set-up when it was time for qualifying. On top of that, he was unlucky when three drivers set lap-times within just one tenth of a second and he was on the lower end of this group."
Willy Rampf, Technical Director “That's a brilliant result - especially after the thrilling Q2. After Nick's lap time was deleted because he had cut the chicane, for him it was all or nothing. He managed this in an impressive way. For Robert it didn’t go as well and he finished, beaten by fractions, in eight position. To be honest, this second row was what we hoped to achieve here."
