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Brazil GP: Average Qualy for BMW-Sauber: 6 and 7th
By BMW Sauber F1 Team October 20 2007
Quite obviously, the public mainly focused on the qualifying battle of the three championship contenders in Sao Paulo. However, the team-internal battle of the BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers proved to be just as thrilling. Nick Heidfeld secured sixth grid position, while Robert qualified seventh.
Business as usual in the first knockout phase of qualifying: both Robert and Nick easily advanced to the second leg of the session and both set their personal best times in their second stint. Robert finished fifth with a 1:13.085-minute lap, Nick secured ninth position by lapping the Brazilian circuit in 1:13.472 minutes. Ferrari's local hero, Felipe Massa, claimed first place in 1:12.303 minutes.

Eliminated: Heikki Kovalainen, Takuma Sato, Kazuki Nakajima, Anthony Davidson, Adrian Sutil, Sakon Yamamoto.

In the second knockout phase of qualifying for the final GP of the season, Robert and Nick completed their streak of qualifying successes by again making it to the top-ten shootout. For Robert, advancing to the top-ten shootout proved to be an easy task. The Pole needed just one effort to set a 1:12.641-minute lap and finish fifth. Nick, however, had to complete two assaults. He just qualified for the third stage by finishing tenth with a 1:12.888-minute lap. The fastest time of the second knock-out phase was set by Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen in 1:12.161 minutes.

Eliminated: Rubens Barrichello, Giancarlo Fisichella, Sebastian Vettel, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Ralf Schumacher, Jenson Button.

The top-ten shoot out turned out to be a true team-internal thriller for Nick and Robert. In his first stint, Robert outqualified his German team-mate with a 1:13.129-minute lap. In the second assault, however, Robert failed to improve while Nick crossed the finish line in 1:13.081 minutes to secure sixth grid position, right ahead of his team-mate who finished seventh. The final pole position of the year was gained by Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

Result: 1st Felipe Massa, 2nd Lewis Hamilton, 3rd Kimi Räikkönen, 4th Fernando Alonso, 5th Mark Webber, 6th Nick Heidfeld, 7th Robert Kubica, 8th Jarno Trulli, 9th David Coulthard, 10th Nico Rosberg.

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