Happy Heidfeld Surprised by Top Ten Spot

German Nick Heidfeld was surprised to be able to qualify in the top ten for the Japanese Grand Prix following his heavy crash on Friday.

The Sauber driver lost control of his car on the Esses and crashed heavily against the tyre barriers during free practice, destroying his car and forcing the session to the red-flagged. But his team worked hard during the night and were able to repair the car for today's qualifying.

Heidfeld, who was taken to the medical centre for a check-up after the accident, admitted he was surprised to be able to set the tenth quickest time in today's session, and thanked the team for their work.

"The team did a great job last night to get my race car repaired, for which I'd like to thank them," said Heidfeld. "To be honest, after yesterday I didn't expect to make the top 10, so I'm pleased with this afternoon's result.

"The car wasn't quite as good in qualifying as it had been in the last two races, and on my last run I got some traffic. Not enough to hold me up, but enough to lose me some downforce. That was a pity because I had improved in the second sector. Overall, though, I'm happy, and confident that we will be strong in the race."

Finn Kimi Raikkonen, in his final race for the Sauber team before moving to McLaren next season, was unable to match his teammate's pace today. The 21-year old endured a difficult session where he had to handle understeering problems to finish in 12th place.

"Early on the car was too heavy when I had to go for a weight check, and after we had corrected that my other runs were hampered by understeer," he said. "On the final run we still hadn't dialled that out, and then I got some traffic, which was frustrating."