US GP: BMW Sauber Saturday practice notes

After three trouble free practice sessions, the BMW Sauber F1 Team is happy with its best starting position of the season. Jacques Villeneuve qualified 6th after both drivers made it easily into the top ten with positions six and seven in the second part of qualiyfing. Jacques will start from the third row, but Nick stopped with a technical problem so was tenth.

Jacques Villeneuve:

"I am quite happy because in the middle of the second qualifying session it looked like it would be tough to get into the top ten, but then it worked out. We are very close to Fernando Alonso, and just needed a few hundredths of a second to be in front of him."

"That makes it a bit frustrating, but there were a few mistakes on that lap. However, this weekend we concentrated on the set up for the race more than for the qualifying, so I am quite confident for the race."

Nick Heidfeld:

"We were really quick here in qualifying. Most of the time I was ahead of Jacques so a good starting position would have been possible for me. Unfortuanly my car stopped suddenly, and we don’t know why yet. It didn’t feel like an engine problem, so I think I will be able to start from tenth on the grid."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):

"This was our strongest qualifying so far this season from a performance level. In the second part of qualifying we made it easily into the final session. A car on the third row of the grid is our best result so far."

"Unfortunately Nick had a problem in the third part and we have to now analyse this, but from looking at data it seems to be an electronic problem. We are confident we will have both cars in good shape for the race."

Willy Rampf (Technical Director Chassis):

"The second part of qualifying was especially very exciting for us. Following Nick’s good performance in the early part of this session, we decided to send him out for only one run to save a set of tyres."

"Jacques’ performance in the second part of qualifying was also very strong. We had very high hopes for the top ten qualifying, and Jacques managed to turn our hopes into reality. Being sixth on the grid is brilliant. I am certain Nick would have also been able to leave one of the favourites behind him."

Jacques Villeneuve
Chassis: BMW Sauber F1.06-02
Engine: BMW P86
Qualifying: 6th, 1:12.479

Nick Heidfeld
Chassis: BMW Sauber F1.06-04
Engine: BMW P86
Qualifying: 10th, 1:15.280

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