Heidfeld celebrates his “beautiful” performance

Nick Heidfeld is pleased with his fourth place at the German Grand Prix and considers it a good result after a poor qualifying session on Saturday.

The BMW Sauber driver started his race from the 12th position after making a mistake in qualifying during his last fast lap.

But the German made a good recovery yesterday and expertly used the safety car intervention to perfect his strategy. The result is convincing, he is 4th but he was at one point on the third step of the podium.

« Moving from 12th to 4th place on the grid, I think it’s quite a very good result, » said Heidfeld.

« Not being in the top ten in qualifying allowed me to choose my fuel load. I stopped just before the safety car intervention. So, I was able to continue the race without pitting like most of the field. »

« This proved crucial because I had the opportunity to escape, leaving the other drivers in the traffic. The car was performing well and the fact that I completed the fastest lap in the race proves it. »

« In the end, I was very close to Felipe Massa but I didn’t have the opportunity to overtake him. It was a good race for me, in front of my home crowd, and I’m happy to have given something back to the fans who were disappointed with my performance on Saturday, » he explained.

Robert Kubica had to settle for seventh place. The Pole remains doubtful about a sudden loss of performance from his tires.

« It’s difficult to be happy after a race like this, » admitted Kubica.

« During the first half of the race, I was able to compete with McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari. Then, my car became much slower. »

« My tires have lost a lot of grip, maybe because they got too cold. We now need to analyze the data. »