French GP: Sauber race notes

Nick Heidfeld brought his Sauber Petronas C21 home seventh in today's French Grand Prix, but Felipe Massa retired on the 48th lap.

Nick Heidfeld:

"Before my first pit stop I had a problem with slow upshifts and loss of traction control. I asked the team what to do and they said switch traction control off. After that I used recovery mode but it was inconsistent and I kept getting occasional wheelspin, and that got worse later in the race. In the end I switched traction control back on again but I still had the slow upshift problem. It's a shame because that was costing me a massive amount of time."

Felipe Massa:

"At the start I made a mistake and release the launch control system a fraction too early. For safety reasons I had to keep going, and for a while I was in seventh place until I got my first drive-through penalty. After that I got another one for crossing the white line on the pit exit; okay, it was my fault, but it's quite tricky there and the line is dirty, and several other well-established drivers did the same thing later on."

"In my second pit stop there was a misunderstanding with the crew, and I think maybe something broke when I tried to rejoin the race. It's a shame, because in between my adventures the car felt really good."

Peter Sauber (Team Principal):

"Even without all our troubles today it was not possible to score a point. We have to accept this and move on to our preparations for Hockenheim next weekend. Congratulations to Michael Schumacher and Ferrari for their historic achievement today."

Driver (Chassis) Heidfeld (C21-06) 7th Massa (C21-07) Retired lap 48 Spare: (C21-01)

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