By BMW Sauber F1 Team
March 29 2009

The 2009 season opener proved to be a very difficult race for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. Due to two separate incidents, Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica had to leave Melbourne empty-handed. Nonetheless, Robert delivered in fantastic style and proved that the BMW Sauber F1.09 has what it takes to battle it out for podium finishes this season.

For Nick, the 2009 Australian Grand Prix was virtually over after lap one. The German was involved in a first-corner incident and had to pit for new tyres, thus dropping back to the very back of the field. Consequently, he never had a real chance of working his way up into a points finish and had to settle for finishing 11th.

Robert, however, defended his top-four position throughout the race and the team's strategy of opting for a short first stint on the super softs proved to be a successful move. The softer compound's performance level dropped very quickly and in the closing stages of the race this drop in performance could have proved to be a crucial factor, particularly as everybody apart from Robert and the two Ferraris had started the race on mediums and opted to contest the final stint on the super softs.

On lap 52, Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello went in for his final pit stop and Robert moved up to third position, some 3.5 seconds behind second-placed Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) and another 3.5 seconds behind Brawn GP's race leader Jenson Button.

Robert clearly benefited from having his car shod with the mediums while the two cars ahead of him were racing on the super softs. Lap by lap he closed in on the two front-runners. On lap 53, Robert was just 2.1 seconds behind Vettel and on the subsequent lap he had reduced the gap to the German to 1.3 seconds. Finishing second or even winning the race seemed to be within his reach.

Then, on lap 56, he launched an attack against the Red Bull driver, moving up alongside Vettel who, however, went over the kerbs slid back on to the track where the two cars collided. Robert's race was over due to a heavily damaged front section on his BMW Sauber F1.09.

Button secured the first win of the season, with Barrichello and Toyota's Jarno Trulli finishing second and third respectively.

The BMW Sauber F1 Team had to leave Melbourne empty-handed, but Robert clearly demonstrated the BMW Sauber F1.09's competitiveness. Therefore, the Munich and Hinwil based squad can travel to Kuala Lumpur for next weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix in a confident mood.