By AFCA compilation
April 6 2009

It's difficult to say what the decisive factors were for Heidfeld landing a podium spot today. Experience, an error-free drive, a bit of luck...a bit of everything. Here we analyse, with the quotes of the "protagonists"... Heidfeld: ''Today we simply always took the right decisions.''

Heidfeld started the race as the heaviest car on the grid (''P11 was the chance to fill the car to the brim'') and was therefore able to immediately change to wet weather tyres at his first stop. It was then that BMW Sauber made the only mistake of the day. Glock showed that intermediates (instead of extreme wets) would have been the right choice at that moment. But Heidfeld made up for this preserving the extreme wets for as much as possible. ''I knew that at some stage it would rain harder.''

The German was getting pretty worried though: Glock was 8 seconds faster a lap. Theissen: ''We had to convince the driver that it was better to stay out. Heidfeld: ''Two or three times I asked for intermediates but the team wanted me to stay out.''

On lap 30 things couldn't continue like that. ''My rear tyres had turned into slicks.'' Finally the strategists called in Heidfeld for a pitstop. But all of a sudden the driver changed his opinion: ''On the back straight I noticed that the rain started to become heavier and heavier. 300 metres before the pitlane entrance I decided to stay out.''

Hoping for a real cloudburst and a Safety Car situation Heidfeld kept on going. Meanwhile Glock came in to switch to extreme wets and Heidfeld took second place. The race win was almost within reach as well: ''The team told me that I was on P1 when Button came in for extreme wets. I was on the back straight then. In normal circumstances I would have actually gone past him but with the rain he turned on track again 200 metres in front of me. Otherwise I could have even brought home the race win.''

On the race being aborted: ''Today was really a great deal of fun. Up to the last two laps that is. I was only still ice skating, we weren't even able to follow the Safety Car. Waving the red flag was the right decision in any case. For me anyway.''

Theissen: ''In Melbourne we unluckily missed out on a podium finish. Here we somewhat luckily landed a podium spot. Although of course a flawless performance of the team and drivers were necessary for that.''

On the late starting hour of the race: ''Already during the GP I heard that next year they're willing to have the race sooner during the day.''

Kubica on KERS: ''It clearly makes a difference, we've seen that again here in Malaysia. But it's also dependent on how well you feel with it, it's not just a matter of extra power. When you make a mistake with KERS then you can make up for it again.''

On being heavy: ''It's certainly not easy. If I were a few kg lighter then I'd certainly be having it in the car each race, or at least at most races.''

The reason behind Kubica not using KERS is the fact that the team cannot balance the car without exceeding the minimum weight, which of course has a negative effect on the laptimes. ''That's basically the reason why I'm not using it at the moment. I can't get a decent weight distribution.'' And without that there's too much tyre wear.

On his race: ''In the warm up lap I suddenly lost the power of the engine. I told the team there was some problem with the engine. The engine simply didn't run smoothly and we also had a problem at the start. I had no power. The guys thought they could still get it right but unfortunately that wasn't the case.''