BMW duo hope fuel strategy pays off

The pair had looked to be a big threat to favourites McLaren and Ferrari in the first two sessions of qualifying, but their pace slumped in the final session.

Heidfeld could manage no better than seventh, while Kubica ended up one place further back for the team's worst qualifying result of the campaign.

Although some of that performance shortfall was caused by the team opting to do their quick laps early in the session because of fears of rain, they almost certainly filled their cars much heavier with fuel than some of their nearest opposition.

Heidfeld said: "We have improved the car since Thursday's practice and the laptimes in Q2 were very promising, but I am not too happy about grid position seven.

"In Q3 we had some minor problems. We changed early to the soft tyres because there was some light rain which worried us. This meant the track conditions were not ideal and we had a little too much fuel on board.

"On top of that I made a small mistake after the tunnel. From grid position seven you can't expect too much. But on the other hand, in Monaco almost everything can happen."

Kubica added: "I am very happy about the car's performance, but not about the position. Let's see how we will be tomorrow compared to the others with our strategy.

"In Q2 we were competitive, in Q3 less, but we will see. The car was good, much better balance than Thursday, so I am really looking forward to the race as I think we are in good shape for it."

Technical director Willy Rampf has hinted that the team probably filled their cars with too much fuel because they felt they were faster than expected in Q2.

"Our lap times in Q2 were closer to the top than we expected, and based on this we decided on the fuel load for Q3," he said. "Because it started raining slightly in some parts of the track, we opted for relatively early runs.

"With this strategy we obviously didn't make the best use of the constantly improving track conditions. This is a shame, but nothing is lost because anything can happen in the race here."