A weekend to forget - Heidfeld

For German driver, Nick Heidfeld, this year's trip to the Principality was hardly worthwhile. Despite a fantastic chase, the BMW Sauber F1 Team driver had to settle for finishing 14th in the Monaco Grand Prix.

The first laps of the "Circuit de la Principauté" proved to be virtually tailor-made for the German BMW Sauber F1 Team ace. In wet and extremely difficult track conditions, Heidfeld benefited both from his vast wealth of experience and his driving skills. With just eight laps completed, he had worked his way up to fifth place from his 13th position on the starting grid.

"For a while it looked as if I would really be able to compensate for my poor qualifying," said the 31-year old. "I made a poor start but was still able to pass several cars despite the difficult conditions."

On lap 14, however, Fernando Alonso (Renault) collided with Nick's BMW Sauber F1.08 while trying to pass him. This incident brought an end to Nick's hopes of securing a good result. "My car was massively damaged," explains Nick. "Actually, the entire left side - apart from the wings - was battered. At first I thought I could continue like that. But then, the air pressure in my left rear tyre dropped and I was forced to slowly crawl back to the pits. From that point in time, I held the last place."

Nick finished the race, nevertheless - and despite his disappointment, he shared the team's delight at Robert Kubica's great result. "For me, it was a weekend to forget," he admits, "But for Robert and the team, second place was a reason to celebrate."

Now, Nick is already focussing on preparations for the next World Championship round: the Canadian Grand Prix. "I'm going to work flat out with the engineers to get out of this mess," concludes the German.