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Hockenheim Race: Heidfeld gets close to the podium
By BMW Sauber F1 Team July 20 2008
With a great performance, a similarly fine race strategy, and a dose of luck, Nick Heidfeld finished a fantastic fourth in the German Grand Prix. By coming home seventh, Robert Kubica also added two points to the BMW Sauber F1 Team's tally. .
It was a race of two different halves, for the BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers. While Robert was the man of the first half of the race, Nick did even better in the second.

From his seventh position on the grid, Robert gained three positions on lap one by passing Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari), Jarno Trulli (Toyota) and Fernando Alonso (Renault) for fourth position. Meanwhile, Nick passed David Coulthard (Red Bull) but was subsequently passed by Toro Rosso's Sébastien Bourdais and continued in twelfth. On the following lap, however, Nick succeeded in re-passing the Toro Rosso driver for eleventh.

From this point in time, the race proved to be rather uneventful until the first round of pit stops was over. While Robert had pitted on lap 19, Nick came in much later, on lap 28. Two laps later, Williams' Nico Rosberg and Toyota's Timo Glock were the last of the top 14 to come in for their first stops and afterwards Robert once again held fourth position, with Nick running in eleventh.

On lap 36, however, a heavy crash involving Timo Glock, which the Toyota driver survived virtually unharmed, proved to be a major advantage for Nick who had pitted just nine laps earlier. The safety-car went out for several laps and while the German, Renault's Nelson Piquet and race leader Lewis Hamilton continued without pitting once the pit-lane opened, nearly everybody else came in for their second stops. Consequently, Nick now held runner-up position, behind Hamilton and Robert continued in fifth place behind Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

At the restart, Robert was passed by Heikki Kovalainen and dropped back to sixth, while Nick succeeded in defending his second position. Now the German BMW Sauber F1 Team driver really went for it. On his way to opening a gap on the cars behind before his second stop, he clocked faster times lap after lap and on the 52nd he set the fastest race lap, crossing the line in 1:15.987 minutes.

An effort that paid off: When Nick rejoined the race following his second pit stop, on lap 53, he still held fourth position behind Lewis Hamilton, who had pitted one lap before the German. From this point in time, everybody waited for Piquet to come in for his second pit stop which would have offered Nick the chance of securing a podium finish - but at the end of the day it wasn't to be as the Brazilian was on a one-stop strategy.

At the same time, Robert was unable to deliver on the same level as in the first half of the race and on lap 60 he was passed by Räikkönen and dropped back to seventh. At this point, Nick started pressurising Massa. The German was clearly faster than the Ferrari driver but this time he didn't find a way to pass his rival. Nonetheless, finishing fourth, from twelfth position on the grid, to score five World Championship points represents a fantastic result for Nick.

At the end of the day, it was another fine race for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. To finish fourth and seventh represented a better result than anybody in the team had hoped for following the disappointing qualifying session. It was a result that helped the Munich and Hinwil based squad defend its second position in the Constructors' Championship. With 89 points to its tally, the team now lies 16 points behind Ferrari but three ahead of McLaren - and will try to defend this position in the Hungarian Grand Prix in a fortnight at the Hungaroring.

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