BMW aim to bounce back in France

Although the German squad enjoyed a good qualifying at Indianapolis, their race was dismal, with German Nick Heidfeld crashing heavily in the opening lap mayhem through no fault of his own.

Canadian Teammate Jacques Villeneuve retired with a broken engine while running in the points.

Despite the disappointing result, which ended a streak of six consecutive races in the points for them, BMW motorsport chief Mario Theissen is upbeat about his team's chances of shining at the French Grand Prix next week.

"Coming away from Indianapolis without any points was gutting," said Theissen. "But despite that we are encouraged by the fact that in qualifying we made it into the third row of the grid for the first time, and also had the pace in the race itself. We want to build on that in Magny- Cours.

"The goal once again is to get both cars into the top ten qualifying and to collect points in the race. As Jacques will be getting a new engine after the engine failure at Indianapolis, and Nick is scheduled to get a new BMW P86 anyhow, both cars are now in the same cycle."