Third place for Heidfeld as Kubica is hit by acceleration problems
For the third time this season Nick Heidfeld has claimed third on the grid for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. His team mate, Robert Kubica, will be starting from seventh for tomorrow’s Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest.
Nick Heidfeld: BMW Sauber F1.07-05/BMW P86/7 Qualifying: 3rd, 1.20.259 min (3rd Practice: 4th, 1.20.565 min) “I am happy about P3, especially as up to now the whole weekend has not been easy. The tyre choice was very hard, but we were not the only ones facing that challenge. Yesterday was quite ok, but today in the second qualifying session we were not on the pace, and I was only in P6. Apparently, the soft tyres were the reason. In view of this we decided to go for the hard tyre compound for the last fast lap in the third qualifying session. I think with this the race should not be a problem. I would like to thank the entire team for the fantastic work. Third for me means the opportunity for the next podium. This is my goal right now. Generally I consider us as the third force, but Ferrari doesn’t seem to be as strong as usual. Felipe Massa starts from a long way down the grid.“
Robert Kubica: BMW Sauber F1.07-03/BMW P86/7 Qualifying: 7th, 1.20.876 min (3rd Practice: 12th, 1.21.652 min) “The day was not very good. The car is not accelerating how it should. We lose too much time with every single upshift. We now have to analyse the data and see what we can do for tomorrow, which will be difficult as the car is in Parc Fermé right now. Seventh was the best I could do under these conditions.”
Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport Director “The conditions for qualifying were demanding. The two factors that were simply not constant were both the strong and gusty wind and the changing tyre performance. For the first time we decided to go for the hard tyre compound in the third qualifying session, as we expected them to be more stable. Taking these conditions into account, third for Nick is a fantastic result, and seventh for Robert is fine as well. Unfortunately a software problem prevented a better result.”
Willy Rampf, Technical Director “We are happy. The starting positions are promising for the race. Third for Nick was, in secret, exactly what we were hoping for. Robert is a little further down the grid than expected, but he had a technical problem. This qualifying was extremely thrilling with lots of position changes. It was a tyre gamble as well. The decisions whether to go for the hard or the soft tyre compound were taken during the respective qualifying sessions.”
