BMW Sauber F1 Team - Bahrain GP - Race
Bahrain Grand Prix – Race, Sunday – 12.03.06
Weather: Dry, 23-24°C Air, 36-40°C Track
Sakhir (BHR). This was not a great start for our team in
Bahrain. After starting from 10th and 11th places respectively,
neither Nick Heidfeld nor Jacques Villeneuve was able to score
points in this opening round of the 2006 FIA Formula One World
Championship. After an incident after the start, Nick dropped
to 19th and had to fight back to 12th. Jacques retired on
lap 30 with engine failure.
Nick Heidfeld: 12th
BMW Sauber F1.06-04 / BMW P86
Fastest lap: 1:33.772s, lap 26
Obviously things started badly as Nico Rosberg spun me in
the first corner. I lost a lot of places and that ruined my
race. I was able to fight back and had a particularly exciting
battle with Coulthard. It’s difficult to assess our
performance after only one race but naturally it’s disappointing
when you start 10th and can’t score any points.
Jacques Villeneuve: DNF (engine failure)
BMW Sauber F1.06-03 / BMW P86
Fastest lap: 1:33.694s, lap 20
My start was not particularly great, but I managed to find
my way through the first few corners and to stay out of trouble
there. The race set-up was fine and I settled into a good
rhythm. I overtook Coulthard and stayed in front of Raikkonen
for quite a while. Then all of a sudden I started to lose
power, and that was it.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
The start of the weekend was promising, but unfortunately
we could not maintain our performance for the race. Jacques’
car suffered a serious engine failure, without any warning.
The unit was removed immediately after we got the car back,
and sent to Munich for analysis. Nick was the victim of a
collision in the first corner with Nico Rosberg, and was relegated
to the tail of the field. From there he recovered to 12th
but the lap times were not as good as expected. That shows
that we have started well but still have much to do.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director Chassis):
After qualifying we were optimistic for the race, but I have
to admit that our pace this afternoon was not at the level
we had expected after practice on Friday and Saturday. We
have to analyse the reasons for this carefully, but for sure
there is a lot of work to do.
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