Heidfeld blames traffic for missing Q3

For the second race in a row, the BMW Sauber driver was unable to reach Q3 and admitted he was very unhappy with the result.

Heidfeld qualified in 11th, but will start from 10th thanks to a penalty to Sebastian Vettel.

"Of course I'm very disappointed," said Heidfeld. "I looked fairly safe in Q2 when I was seventh, but on my second quick run I had traffic on the out lap.

"Two cars in front of me and one behind meant that I couldn't go at the pace needed to heat the tyres up, and then the important lap wasn't good enough.

"After we did the comparison yesterday I was using the KERS today and it helped, especially in sector one where I was the fastest car for most of the time."

Team-mate Robert Kubica, eighth quickest, said he was pleased with his performance considering how hard the car was to drive.

"I'm satisfied with what I was able to achieve today," he said. "Although we didn't make any major changes after free practice the car was bottoming quite a lot, which made it unstable and therefore not easy to drive.

"I did what I could in the corners, but the straights are long here and give the drivers who are using a KERS a major advantage. I have to start on the dirty side of the track plus I have some cars with a KERS behind me, which will make the start very interesting."