Heidfeld Confident Despite Slow Start

Nick Heidfeld stayed confident for Saturday's qualifying for the German Grand Prix despite finishing outside the top ten in today's practice session.

The German Sauber driver, who has impressed along with his team so far this season, set the twelfth quickest time at the wheel of the Ferrari-powered C20, more than 1.5 seconds off the fastest driver.

However, Heidfeld believes the cars in front of him were running with a low fuel load and he is looking forward to a good result tomorrow.

"I had a normal day with no problems, and looking at the times I would guess that some people ahead of us were running low fuel loads," said Heidfeld. "I think we have made some good progress recently on the C20 over a race distance, and we continued that work today.

"The car felt really good in the last test at Monza, and though it is not quite yet at a similar level here, I feel we have a good chance of achieving that for tomorrow once we have analysed today's data."

Teammate Kimi Raikkonen had to settle for a disappointing 16th place after problems with his car's engine hampered his progress. The young Finn, however, admitted he was happy with his car's handling.

"My car felt fine to begin with this morning, but towards the end of the session it began to develop a problem with an engine speed sensor that made it change gear randomly," Raikkonen explained. "This became worse during the second session, so I had to stop."