Formula 1
Malaysian GP: Williams race notes
The BMW WilliamsF1 Team achieved it s first podium of the season today with a brilliant 3rd place from Nick Heidfeld, who also equalled his best Formula One finish ever. With 20 laps to go Mark Webber retired after an accident when he was battling ...
Edited: Mar 22, 2005, 4:08 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The BMW WilliamsF1 Team achieved it s first podium of the season today with a brilliant 3rd place from Nick Heidfeld, who also equalled his best Formula One finish ever. With 20 laps to go Mark Webber retired after an accident when he was battling for third position.
Nick Heidfeld:
"I am very happy, this was the most exciting race I ever had in F1. I pushed hard from the start since I had to recover from my 10th grid position and I had a good race with some exciting overtaking. It was real fun. At a lot of stages I got involved in battles with two other cars and we had several good fights, but in the end I got the upper hand."
"The car performed well and so did the BMW engine and our Michelin tyres. Still, as usual in a hot race when it is the last thing you would like to happen, I had a problem with the drink bottle from the very first laps, which made my life more difficult."
Mark Webber:
"I had a pretty good start and set it into a reasonable rhythm and after the first pit stop I started to catch Fisichella who was holding me up quite a lot as his tyres were finished. I had Ralf behind me and I knew he could pounce anytime. We had a tight fight but I got in front of him in the end."
"Then with 20 laps to go I closed up with Fisichella again. His tyres were getting worse and worse, I passed him at turn 14 and left him plenty of room. Then Giancarlo came on the inside on the next corner and I knew it would be difficult for him to stop on the dirty side. I went back onto the clean side and I think Fisi braked too late, locked his tyres on the dirty stuff, lost the rear end and took my car out."
Sam Michael (Technical Director WilliamsF1):
"It was a good day for us showing that the car performance is improving steadily. Nick proved himself to be a fantastic racer with all the overtaking he did without causing any incident. He drove the second fastest lap of the race and finished third coming from tenth."
"We have scored some points which we definitely needed and it is a shame that Mark had this coming together with Fisichella. However, that's racing. Today the car has been competitive. But we know we need to push hard to close the gap to Renault. We had no mechanic problems."
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
"It is pleasing to come away with a podium from this tough challenge. Both the drivers showed strong racing today. I am especially happy for Nick. After a bad qualifying he managed to find his way onto the podium."
"Before his accident, it was Mark who had third place in sight. Both engines came through this very hot race absolutely troublefree, thanks to our crew in Munich. The telemetry on Nick's car failed to work until just before the 2nd pit-stop therefore until that point our engineers had no data about the engine's condition."
Nick Heidfeld: 3rd
Chassis: FW27 04
Best time: 1:35.712 (lap 40, 2nd overall)
Mark Webber: DNF (accident - lap 37)
Chassis: FW27 03
Best time: 1:36.026 (lap 20, 5th overall)
-williams-
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Malaysian GP: Jordan race notes
Next article Malaysian GP: Bridgestone race notes
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Mark Webber
Oscar Piastri shares how relationship with Mark Webber has evolved since F1 debut
Formula 1
Formula 1
Miami GP
Oscar Piastri shares how relationship with Mark Webber has evolved since F1 debut
Mark Webber’s Oscar Piastri role change was inevitable, says David Coulthard
Formula 1
Formula 1
Saudi Arabian GP
Mark Webber’s Oscar Piastri role change was inevitable, says David Coulthard
What F1 history tells us about three-way title deciders
Formula 1
Formula 1
Abu Dhabi GP
What F1 history tells us about three-way title deciders
More from
Williams
Williams has better cooling vests than anyone – Alex Albon
Formula 1
Formula 1
Williams has better cooling vests than anyone – Alex Albon
James Vowles explains request for review of F1 cost cap
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
James Vowles explains request for review of F1 cost cap
Latest news
Marc Marquez puts his chances of retiring within three years at 70%
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
19 min
Marc Marquez puts his chances of retiring within three years at 70%
Audi hands F3 runner-up Freddie Slater F1 practice debut
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
55 min
Audi hands F3 runner-up Freddie Slater F1 practice debut
On this day: Fernando Alonso wins the world title, Michael Schumacher retires from F1
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Brazilian GP
2 h
On this day: Fernando Alonso wins the world title, Michael Schumacher retires from F1
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe