BMW/Sauber Monaco Qualifying Update

Kubica continues to be in control while Heidfeld is dealt another blow to his confidence.

Monaco Grand Prix – Qualifying, Saturday – 24.05.08

Weather: light rain during practice, dry during Qualifying. 19-21°C Air, 19-29°C Track

Monte Carlo (MC). Robert Kubica qualified fifth for the Monaco Grand Prix. His teammate, Nick Heidfeld, ended his streak of qualifying in the top 10 for 28 consecutive races when he came in 13th. A red flag after an accident (David Coulthard) robbed him of his last opportunity to get a top ten position.

Light rain in the morning gave a preview of what a wet race would be like in Monaco. For Kubica and Heidfeld the third practice session was trouble free. Kubica especially dealt well with these tricky conditions.

Robert Kubica: BMW Sauber F1.08-03 / BMW P86/8 Qualifying 5th, 1:16.171 min (3rd Practice: 5th, 1:17.687 min) “Again we showed we have a good pace. I was pushing on every single lap of qualifying and this was all I could do today. Unfortunately on my last flying lap I had Lewis Hamilton in front of me. He did not hold me up, but whenever you have another car in front of you there is some kind of a risk. On my out lap I tried to widen the gap to Lewis so as to have no traffic. My tires cooled down too much and I was very slow in the first sector of my quick lap.“

Nick Heidfeld: BMW Sauber F1.08-05 / BMW P86/8 Qualifying 13th, 1:16.455 min (3rd Practice: 18th, 1:19.024 min) “Unfortunately I don’t have much to say: my qualifying result is disappointing. Here in Monaco I can’t heat up the tires quickly enough.”

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): “From a technical point of view our qualifying was ok. Certainly, we are disappointed with Nick ending up 13th. Robert showed a good pace and was able to fight for the top positions. In the end he even could have been a position further up the grid, but fifth is ok.“

Willy Rampf (Technical Director): “In the third Free Practice we had changing weather conditions. Therefore it was difficult to find the perfect set-up. In Q1 and Q2 Robert managed to get the results we expected. In Q3 he was not able to set the time we hoped for. In the end he missed the second row of the grid by six thousands of a second. Anyway, fifth is a good starting position. Meanwhile for Nick it will be a lot more difficult to score points in Monaco from 13th on the grid. However, for Sunday changing weather conditions are predicted, so we might see a surprise.“

Edited and adapted from BMW press.