Heidfeld claims podium place in most scored weekend for BMW
In a strategic thriller, Nick Heidfeld secured the fourth podium ever for the BMW Sauber F1 Team at the Hungarian Grand Prix. It is his second podium this season after he finished second in Canada in June. Robert Kubica improved from seventh on the grid to a fifth place finish. Together the two drivers claimed ten points – the most scored in a single weekend in the young team’s short history.
Nick Heidfeld: 3rd BMW Sauber F1.07-05 / BMW P86/7 Fastest Lap: 1:20.582 min on lap 16 (5th fastest overall) “This was a superb race for me. I was on the podium for the second time this year, and podiums were on our ’to do’ list for this season. I had a bad start on the dirty side of the track and lost a place to Kimi Räikkönen, but anyway both Lewis Hamilton and he have clearly been faster today, so a better start would not have changed much. I had some difficulties with the second and third sets of tyres and it was not easy to race against a 'ghost'. Of course I knew I was racing Fernando Alonso but, due to the different strategies, he wasn't visible to me. We decided early this weekend to go for a three stop strategy because the softer tyres caused trouble. I only used them in the last stint when my car was relatively light and the track had a lot of rubber. Fernando was faster than me almost everywhere and put me under pressure, but he didn't have a proper chance to overtake as this is very difficult here."
Robert Kubica: 5th BMW Sauber F1.07-03 / BMW P86/7 Fastest Lap: 1:20.419 min on lap 40 (4th fastest overall) “I am happy with the pace. Today the car worked well, and my race was pretty good. I had to start with used tyres, therefore, the first laps were very difficult for me. However, after the first stop the pace was really good and then I closed the gap to Nick to three seconds. Without yesterday’s problems we could have finished a lot better. Nick had a good result and this is good for the team.“
Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport Director “That was not only a great result points wise, but it was also the best result so far for our team. Nick third and on the podium and Robert fifth – that means ten important points. To date we have never managed to get more than that with the BMW Sauber F1 Team in a single race. That is fantastic. Today everything worked well for us. Our race strategy was aggressive. The pit stops were perfect, and today that was very important. A great compliment to the team here at the track and also to our colleagues at home in Hinwil and Munich. Being third in the constructors’ championship means now we have a big cushion, and we look forward to going into the summer break highly motivated.”
Willy Rampf, Technical Director “This race was a wonderful game of chess, in which you could plan where and when to make your moves. Strategically it was extremely enjoyable, and because of a great pit crew it really worked perfectly for us. The performance of the pit crew was a crucial ingredient in this game of chess with the third stops, with the very quick tyre changes, being the most important. Both our drivers were fantastic today. They were fast and consistent and achieved the maximum today.”
