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Silverstone Quali: Back to slow pace for BMW, 12 & 15th
By BMW Sauber F1
June 20 2009
In qualifying for the British Grand Prix, Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld both advanced to Q2 but failed to secure top-ten positions on the Silverstone grid. Despite driving their hearts out, the BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers had to settle for 12th and 15th positions, respectively. Pole position was secured by Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel.
In the first knockout phase of qualifying - which was red-flagged with 24 remaining due to a heavy crash involving Force India's Adrian Sutil - Robert and Nick advanced to Q2. For both BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers, making it to the second leg of the session proved to be hard work but at the end of the day they succeeded in doing so. Nick and Robert both carried out three runs and Nick set his personal best time of 1:19.559 minutes on his third run to finish 13th. Robert, however, failed to improve on his third run but his best time of 1:19.730 minutes, clocked on his 8th lap, was good enough to advance to Q2. The fastest lap of Q1 (1:18.530 minutes) was set by Williams' Kazuki Nakajima, while Sutil survived his accident virtually unharmed.

Eliminated: Giancarlo Fisichella, Sébastien Bourdais, Adrian Sutil, Lewis Hamilton and Sébastien Buemi.

For the BMW Sauber F1 Team pairing, the second knockout phase of the session meant the end of their British GP qualifying efforts as both failed to achieve an improvement on their second runs. Robert finished 12th, with his personal fastest lap time of 1:19.308 minutes, while Nick crossed the line in 1:19.448 minutes to finish 15th. The fastest lap time of Q2 (1:18.2119 minutes) was clocked by Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel.

Eliminated: Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica, Heikki Kovalainen, Nelson Piquet, Nick Heidfeld.

In the top-ten shootout, Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel secured pole position, with Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello and Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber finishing second and third respectively. Meanwhile, World Championship leader Jenson Button (Brawn GP) had to settle for sixth on the grid.

Result: 1st Sebastian Vettel, 2nd Rubens Barrichello, 3rd Mark Webber, 4th Jarno Trulli, 5th Kazuki Nakajima, 6th Jenson button, 7th Nico Rosberg, 8th Timo Glock, 9th Kimi Räikkönen, 10th Fernando Alonso.

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