By BMW Sauber F1 Team
October 18 2008

The qualifying session for the Chinese Grand Prix proved to be a disappointment for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. Nick Heidfeld had to make do with ninth on the grid following a three-place grid penalty. The Munich and Hinwil based squad's World Championship contender, Robert Kubica, had to settle for qualifying 11th. In the first knockout phase of qualifying, the BMW Sauber F1 Team had to cope with an unfamiliar situation: while Nick easily made it to Q2 by finishing 10th with a personal best time of 1:36.224 minutes set in his first run, Robert Kubica encountered his problems on the way to advancing to the second knockout phase. He was clearly too slow in his first run and in his second, he also was three tenths of a second slower than his team-mate. At the end of the session, however, he finished 14th and made it, with his 1:36.503-minute lap. The fastest lap time of Q1 (1:35.566 minutes) was clocked by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton. 

Eliminated: David Coulthard, Kazuki Nakajima, Jenson Button, Adrian Sutil, Giancarlo Fisichella. 

Again, Nick was clearly faster than Robert and this time, the Pole unfortunately failed to make it to the to top-ten qualifying. Just in the qualifying session where securing a good grid position would have been so vital for keeping his championship chances alive. In the end, Robert finished 12th, with his personal best time of 1:35.814 minutes set in his first run. Meanwhile, Nick easily made it to Q3. With his 1:35.403-minutel lap clocked in his first run, the German finished sixth on the time sheets, thus confirming his performances delivered during the case of the weekend so far. Again, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton proved to be the quickest - by crossing the line in 1:34.947 minutes. 

Eliminated: Nelson Piquet, Robert Kubica, Timo Glock, Rubens Barrichello, Nico Rosberg.  

In the Top-Ten Qualifying, Nick delivered in solid style. On an obviously rather heavy load of fuel, the German completed two runs and in his second, he set a personal fastest best time of 1:37.201 minutes - some 1.8 seconds slower than his best time in Q2 - to finish seventh in the qualifying session for the 2008 Chinese Grand Prix. Due to a grid penalty for Mark Webber (Red Bull) he initially improved to sixth on the grid, but was then penalised as well: The marshals were of the opinion that Nick had impeded Webber's team-mate David Coulthard during one of his qualifying runs. The BMW Sauber F1 Team driver lost three positions on the grid. Robert gained one place. Now, you will have to wait until he comes in for his first pit stop in tomorrow's race to find out how competitive the German will truly be. Pole position was secured by McLaren's championship leader Lewis Hamilton, with his toughest rival in the championship, Ferrari driver Felipe Massa, qualifying third.

Result: 1st Lewis Hamilton, 2nd Kimi Räikkönen, 3rd Felipe Massa, 4th Fernando Alonso, Fernando Alonso, 5th Heikki Kovalainen, 6th Mark Webber, 7th Nick Heidfeld, 8th Sebastian Vettel, 9th Jarno Trulli, 10th Sébastien Bourdais.