Turkey Race: Finally Kubica scores points

By BMW Sauber F1
June 7 2009

In the 2009 Turkish Grand Prix, Robert Kubica drove a fine race to finish seventh, thereby scoring his first two points of the 2009 season. His team-mate Nick Heidfeld, however, had to settle for finishing 11th and leaving Istanbul empty-handed.

For Nick, hopes of scoring points in the 2009 Turkish Grand Prix didn't last very long. From eleventh position on the grid he made a better start than his team-mate, Robert Kubica, and held ninth position ahead of the Pole when exiting turn one. Over the course of the opening lap, however, he encountered a brake problem that cost him dearly and when he crossed the line at the end of the lap he had dropped back to 13th.

On the following lap he lost another position to Toyota's Timo Glock and from there on the German had no real chance of battling his way up to the top eight. At the end of the day, he finished 11th.

Meanwhile, Robert experienced a clearly more successful race. Despite having made a worse start than Nick, from his 10th position on the grid, the Pole drove a great opening lap and held eighth position when exiting the final corner of lap one.

Over the next five laps, Robert pressurised Renault's Fernando Alonso but found no way to pass the Spaniard and subsequently opted to ease off for the time being. During the first round of pit stops Robert temporarily moved up to third position but after his own first stop, on lap 21, he rejoined in 10th - but was soon back in eighth when the last drivers to stop, Nick and Williams' Kazuki Nakajima, had pitted.

As in his first stint, Robert continued to deliver a mature performance, avoiding getting involved in any incidents and setting consistent lap times. With this fine performance he closed in on seventh-placed Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima and when everyone had made their final pit stops, Robert had gained another place to continue in seventh, some 10 seconds behind Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

While the gap to the Ferrari driver was too big to overcome, in the closing stages of the race Robert was unable to relax as he now found himself under pressure. Timo Glock made several efforts to pass the Pole for seventh but Robert didn't make the slightest mistake and defended his position until he crossed the finish line to secure a fine seventh place and score his first two points of the 2009 season.

All in all, the BMW Sauber F1 Team must continue working hard to close the gap to the front-runners. On the other hand, the Munich and Hinwil based squad has made another step forward and can hope to make more progress in the coming rounds of the 2009 Formula One World Championship season.