By BMW Sauber F1 Team
June 16 2007

In qualifying for the US Grand Prix, Nick Heidfeld finished fifth, with Sebastian Vettel also delivering in fine style to secure seventh position on the grid. Once again, in the seventh round of the 2007 season, both BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers are in a promising position for scoring points. Nick Heidfeld and Sebastian Vettel both easily advanced to the second knockout phase of qualifying. Both completed a four-lap stint with two flying laps and set their personal fastest lap times on their second flying laps. Nick finished second, with a 1:12.543-minute lap, and Sebastian clocked a personal fastest lap time of 1:12.711 minutes to secure fourth place. In the closing stages, Sebastian went out for a second assault but aborted his effort without having completed a flying lap. McLaren's Fernando Alonso was the quickest, with his 1:12.416-minute lap.

Eliminated: Alexander Wurz, Takuma Sato, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Scott Speed, Adrian Sutil, Christijan Albers.

Both Nick and Sebastian made it to the top-ten shootout. Nick needed just one three-lap stint with one flying lap to set a 1:12.188-minute lap and finish 5th, thus easily making it to the final leg of qualifying. Sebastian, however, had to make two assaults. In his second, he clocked his personal fastest lap time of 1:12.644 minutes to finish eight. The fastest time of 1:11.926 minutes was again set by McLaren's Fernando Alonso.

Eliminated: David Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher, Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, Rubens Barrichello, Anthony Davidson.

In the top-ten shootout, Nick secured fifth position on the grid with Sebastian Vettel qualifying seventh. Both Nick and Sebastian completed two flying laps on fresh sets of tyres. Sebastian set his personal fastest lap of 1:13.513 minutes on his second run to finish seventh, while Nick clocked his better lap time of 1:12.847 minutes on his first assault. On his second, he seemed to be on the way to achieving an improvement but in the final sector graining cost him his chance of securing an even better grid position. Pole position was clinched by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

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