By BMW Sauber F1 Team
March 15 2008

In qualifying for the Australian GP, Robert Kubica delivered in fantastic style to qualify second, just 0.155 seconds behind pole-sitter Hamilton. And without a short off-track moment, the Pole even would have secured pole position. Nick Heidfeld added to the strong team result by qualifying fifth.

In the first leg of the qualifying session for the Australian season opener, Nick and Robert easily advanced to the second knockout phase. Both BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers went out some eleven minutes into the session. Robert needed just one flying lap to set his personal best time of 1:26.103 minutes and finish fourth. Nick, however, experienced a short off-track moment on his first flying lap. On the second, however, he crossed the line in 1:25.960 minutes to secure second position. McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen was the fastest driver of leg one, with a 1:25.664-minute lap.

Eliminated: Giancarlo Fisichella, Sébastien Bourdais, Adrian Sutil, Takuma Sato, Nelson Piquet, Anthony Davidson.

In the second knockout phase of qualifying, the BMW Sauber F1 Team pairing again demonstrated the new BMW Sauber F1.08's competitiveness. Both Nick and Robert made two efforts although their first ones would have been enough to easily qualify for the top-ten shootout. Robert set his personal best time of 1:25.315 minutes in his second assault and finished second while Nick failed to improve in his second effort. But having crossed the line in 1:25.518 minutes in his first run, the German finished fourth. The fastest driver of the session, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, clocked a 1:25.187-minute lap.

Eliminated: Kimi Räikkönen (technical failure), Rubens Barrichello, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Kazuki Nakajima, Mark Webber.

In the top-ten shootout, Robert delivered a stunning second flying lap and came close to securing his first pole position despite of short but spectacular off-track moment in turn 12. In the end, however, he had to make do with second grid position, and a lap time of 1:26.869 minutes. Nick also made two assaults. In his second, he crossed the line in 1:27.236 minutes, thus being 0.367 seconds slower than his team-mate and qualifying fifth. Pole position was clinched by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in 1:26.714 minutes.

Result: 1st Lewis Hamilton 2nd Robert Kubica, 3rd Heikki Kovalainen, 4th Felipe Massa, 5th Nick Heidfeld, 6th Jarno Trulli, 7th Nico Rosberg, 8th David Coulthard, 9th Timo Glock, 10th Sebastian Vettel.