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Promising grid positions for the BMW Sauber
By BMW Sauber F1 Team April 7 2007
In qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix, Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica once again easily succeeded in securing top-ten grid positions for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. Nick finished fifth, thus confirming the team's position as 'third force' on the grid, with Robert taking seventh place.

 

Neither Robert nor Nick had any problems qualifying for the second knockout phase of qualifying. The BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers were the last to go out for their timed laps and both needed just one effort to make it into phase two. Nick set a 1:35.517-minute lap to finish sixth, while Robert secured fourth position with a time of 1:35.294 minutes. The fastest time was set by McLaren's Fernando Alonso (1:34.942 minutes).

Eliminated: Scott Speed, Anthony Davidson, Rubens Barrichello, Alexander Wurz, Christijan Albers, Adrian Sutil.

In the second phase, Robert needed just one timed lap to advance into the next round - and once again he proved to be the slightly quicker of the BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers. The Pole set a 1:34.739-minute lap to finish fifth behind the McLarens and the Ferraris. Nick, however, went out in the closing stages of the session for his second effort. The German improved to 1:35.293 minutes, thus taking sixth place. Fernando Alonso once again topped the timesheets with a time of 1:34.057 minutes.

Eliminated: Heikki Kovalainen, Giancarlo Fisichella, David Coulthard, Takuma Sato, Jenson Button, Vitantonio Liuzzi.

In the top-ten shootout, Nick and Robert delivered in fine style again. Nick completed two flying laps on fresh sets of tyres to set a personal fastest lap time of 1:36.542 minutes and secure fifth position on the grid. Robert had to make do with setting just one fast lap on a fresh set of tyres (1:36.896 minutes), thereby qualifying seventh. Pole position was clinched by Ferrari's Felipe Massa (1:35.043 minutes).

Result: 1st Felipe Massa 2nd Fernando Alonso, 3rd Kimi Räikkönen, 4th Lewis Hamilton, 5th Nick Heidfeld, 6th Nico Rosberg, 7th Robert Kubica, 8th Jarno Trulli, 9th Ralf Schumacher, 10th Mark Webber.

 

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