BMW Sauber F1 Team - Monaco GP - Race
Weather: dry, 24°C air, 27°C track
Monaco. Despite a disappointing qualifying, the BMW Sauber
F1 Team still managed to collect two more championship points
at the Monaco Grand Prix when Nick Heidfeld finished seventh.
Jacques Villeneuve finished the race but was out of the points.
Nick Heidfeld: 7th
BMW Sauber F1.06-02/BMW P86
Fastest Lap: 1:17.319 min on lap 72 (11th fastest overall)
I am extremely happy with today. Before the race not everyone
was optimistic, but you should never give up. It could have
turned out completely differently, but we were lucky with
the circumstances and also made the most of what we had. At
the start I gained four positions, but then I slowed as I
thought I had damaged the car. It turned out I just used the
tyres too hard, especially the rears. I pitted earlier than
planned and after the safety car I just looked after the rear
tyres. I was not sure about getting points here, but in Monaco
the most important thing is not to make mistakes and that
way you can get the car to the finish.
Jacques Villeneuve: 14th
BMW Sauber F1.06-03/BMW P86
Fastest Lap: 1:17.767 min on lap 74 (18th fastest overall)
The start itself was not very good as my clutch was slipping,
but the first corner went well and I caught Jenson Button.
Then I tried to save the brakes a bit. Half way through the
race I had to let the leaders by and David Coulthard also
overtook me. This made me drive off the racing line, I got
dirt on my tyres and they were gone so we decided to make
an early pit stop. Unfortunately this didn’t work very
well because shortly after that the safety car came out. After
all that I got a drive through penalty so it was not a good
day for me.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
If you start on the streets of Monaco 14th and 15th on the
grid and still collect two points you can't complain. Of course
we benefited from retirements in front of us, but Nick deserved
his two points. His start was excellent and his race performance
good. Jacques didn’t get the chance to be so far up
the field and then was delayed by a drive through penalty.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director Chassis):
For us it was a very difficult race. We started with very
heavy cars and soon noticed the lap times dropping. Because
of this we decided to call our cars in early and change the
original strategy. Thanks to Nick’s consistent performance
after his stop we have two points. Considering our grid positions,
our race result is good.
Test in Barcelona: 31.05. – Villeneuve/Kubica, 01.06.
– Heidfeld/Villeneuve, 02.06. – Heidfeld.Kubica
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