Saturday: Improvement from the BMW team

It seems from the initial results that the new aerodynamic package is effective in boosting the performance of the BMW-Sauber team. The proof: The grid positions of both drivers.

After a catastrophic Monaco weekend, Robert Kubica reached Q3 and ultimately finished 10th after a good morning practice. His teammate Nick Heidfeld is just behind in 11th position. He narrowly missed Q3 but will be able to choose his fuel load for tomorrow.

Robert Kubica – 5th and 10th:

« Starting from 10th place is certainly better than from 18th in Monaco. However, we are still lacking a bit of pace compared to the front cars. The track suits us better than Monaco, but we have to fight tomorrow. Although the gap with the leading teams is quite small, there are a lot of cars between us and the front row. It will be difficult. »

Nick Heidfeld – 14th and 11th:

I have mixed feelings about my qualifying session today. On one hand, it’s a shame to miss Q3 by such a small margin, but on the other hand, I’m happy to see the progress we’ve made. The car was quite fast for Q3. I was seventh before dropping to 11th but got caught up in traffic in the final sector of my key lap. Given the 2009 tires, this was enough to prevent them from heating up properly, and as a result, my lap was not good. Our new aerodynamic package with the double diffuser is clearly a step forward. It’s not just compared to Monaco, but also compared to Barcelona, where I scored two points after starting from 13th place on the grid.

Mario Theissen – Director of BMW Motorsport:

« We delivered a strong performance in qualifying today. Obviously, our goal was to get both cars into Q3. Once again, the entire field is very tight today. Nick [Heidfeld] missed Q3 by just five hundredths of a second, and Robert [Kubica] ended up tenth. What is positive in Q2, while all drivers were running under the same conditions, the gap to the best was 0.4 seconds. This proves the effectiveness of the new aerodynamic package. »