10th & 11th in torrential rain

By BMW Sauber F1 Team
September 13 2008

The qualifying session for the Italian Grand Prix proved to be a difficult one for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. In torrential rain, Nick Heidfeld advanced to the top-ten Qualifying phase but then had to settle for finishing tenth. Robert Kubica was pipped in the battle for the top-ten positions and will be eleventh on the grid for tomorrow's race.

The first knockout phase of qualifying was held in torrential rain with the conditions changing minute by minute. Nonetheless, neither Robert nor Nick were ready to let the weather make an impact on their qualifying performances. Both completed two runs of 12 laps and improved their personal best times again and again. In the end, Robert finished seventh with a personal best time of 1:35.553 minutes and Nick followed right behind in eighth position with a 1:35.709-minute lap. The fastest lap time of phase one - a 1:35.214-minute lap - was set by McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen.

Eliminated: Rubens Barrichello, Nelson Piquet, Kazuki Nakajima, Jenson Button, Adrian Sutil. 

In the second knockout phase of qualifying, which took place in ever increasing rain, Nick was the only BMW Sauber F1 Team driver to advance to the top-ten qualifying. On his first flying lap of Q2, the German set a personal best time of 1:36.626 minutes to finish ninth. Robert, however, finished 11th, with his 1:36.697-minute lap, thus failing to make it to Q3 - as did Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen and McLaren's World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton. Later in Q2, Nick and Robert both went out for a second run, but like their fellow competitors they failed to improve their lap times as the conditions got worse and worse. Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel proved to be the quickest with a 1:35.837-minute lap
 
Eliminated: Robert Kubica, Giancarlo Fisichella, David Coulthard, Kimi Räikkönen, Lewis Hamilton. 

In the extremely difficult top-ten qualifying, held on an even wetter track than the previous two knockout phases, Nick had to settle for finishing tenth. Early in Q3, the German held third position but then missed the ideal moment for setting a faster lap time than the 1:39.906 minutes achieved on his second flying lap of Q3. He subsequently dropped back position by position and around a minute later the rain began falling even heavier. Consequently, improving his lap time proved to be impossible. Pole position was secured by Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel in 1:37.555 minutes.  . 
 
Result: 1st Sebastian Vettel, 2nd Heikki Kovalainen, 3rd Mark Webber, 4th Sébastien Bourdais,  5th Nico Rosberg, 6th Felipe Massa, 7th Jarno Trulli, 8th Fernando Alonso, 9th Timo Glock, 10th Nick Heidfeld.