Nick could hardly believe that he was able to celebrate on the podium next to winner David Coulthard and Michael Schumacher in just his 20th GP race. "To visit the podium for the first time is incredible for me," the then 24-year-old exclaimed. "We worked really hard for this result. It's a lot more fun this year to be in the points, especially to finish on the podium."

Following his debut season in the team of former World Champion Alain Prost, Nick entered his second Formula One year for the Sauber Team in 2001. The German was immediately able to arouse attention when he finished fourth in the season opener in Australia. Just two Grands Prix later, he secured the best result of his career up to that date.

"We started the race with a normal dry-road set-up, and everything went well," Nick commented following the exciting 71 laps. "I had some good battles, and could stay in contention. Then the switch to rain tyres was good." Not all participating drivers were able to cope with the difficult conditions at the "Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace". During the second half of the race it started to rain and many drivers were involved in collisions or spun off the track. But Nick did better: Six laps before the end of the race he moved into third place following the retirement of Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Jordan).

To date, Nick has been able to achieve a top-three finish five times in his career. The last time he achieved this was at the 2006 Hungarian GP. Once again in rainy conditions, he managed to score the first podium finish for the young BMW Sauber F1 Team.

*Source: BMW Sauber F1 Team

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