By BMW Sauber F1 Team
October 21 2006

In qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix, both BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers, Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica, succeeded once again in taking their BMW Sauber F1.06 into the top-ten, thus securing a promising position for the battle for fifth place in the Constructors' Championship.

Leg 1: Neither Robert nor Nick had any problems in qualifying for leg two. The BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers were the last to go out, ten minutes into the leg, and both needed just one timed lap to make it to the second phase. Robert set a 1:12.040-minute lap to finish 11th, with Nick (1:12.307 minutes) securing 14th position. The fastest lap (1:10.643 minutes) was set by Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

Not qualified for leg two: Scott Speed, Christijan Albers, David Coulthard, Takuma Sato, Sakon Yamamoto, Tiago Monteiro.

Leg 2: The second leg turned out to be a close one for Nick. While Robert's first fast lap (1.11.589 minutes) was good enough to finish eighth, thus qualifying for the top qualifying, Nick lost time in the second sector and crossed the line in 1:12.315 minutes. He completed another lap but still couldn't improve. However, when both Robert and Nick went out for a second assault with just 1:40 minutes remaining, Nick improved to 1:1.648 minutes, thus just making it to the top-ten qualifying as tenth-placed driver - while Robert failed to improve. The fastest lap time of the leg (1:10.313 minutes) was set by Ferrari's Michael Schumacher.

Not qualified for top qualifying: Mark Webber, Pedro de la Rosa, Nico Rosberg, Jenson Button, Robert Doornbos, Vitantonio Liuzzi

Top Qualifying: In leg three, Robert came in earlier than his team-mate - with eight minutes remaining - for his first tyre change and set a 1:12.131-minute lap. Six minutes later, he came in for a second set of fresh tyres but failed to improve and had to settle for ninth position. Unlike his team-mate, Nick set just one fast lap - which turned out to be faster than Robert's. At the end of the day, the German crossed the line in 1:11.882 minutes to qualify eighth. Pole position was secured by Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

Result: 1st Felipe Massa, 2nd Kimi Räikkönen, 3rd Jarno Trulli, 4th Fernando Alonso, 5th Rubens Barrichello, 6th Giancarlo Fisichella, 7th Ralf Schumacher 8th Nick Heidfeld, 9th Robert Kubica, 10th Michael Schumacher