08/10/2006
NEWS STORY
Nick Heidfeld scored another championship point in the Japanese Grand Prix. He finished eighth in Suzuka, just fractions of a second ahead of his team mate, Robert Kubica. Now the BMW Sauber F1 Team goes to the season’s finale in Brazil in two weeks time fifth in the constructors’ world championship. The advantage over Toyota is just one point.
Nick Heidfeld: My race was good and relatively unspectacular. At the start I gained one position and moved to eighth. The car was good, but I had trouble with the tyres. In all three stints I had graining on both the front and rear tyres. I have been on the softer compound, which was certainly the worse choice for the race. However, the decision had not been easy as, due to the weather conditions on Friday, we were not able to compare the compounds on long runs.
Robert Kubica: It was a good race and I was happy with my pace. But from the beginning I struggled with grip, as I already had an oversteering car from yesterday. I also made a mistake, which lost me about ten seconds, because following cars here in Suzuka is not easy, especially in the quick corners. I perhaps risked too much, but I was able to come back and at the end finish very close to Nick.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): Today's race result was not a surprise after yesterday's qualifying. In view of our grid positions we only could expect to just make it into the points. Nick managed this and scored an important point, which has allowed us to defend fifth position in the constructors' championship. Today we have not been as quick as in the recent races, but it was another weekend without technical problems.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director): After yesterday's qualifying and, considering the performance all weekend of the Bridgestone teams, we couldn’t expect a better result. At least we scored a point, but have not been as strong as in the last races. The positive thing is we approach the season's finale in Brazil fifth in the championship after a trouble free weekend here.
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