Heidfeld blames traffic for missing Q3
Nick Heidfeld blamed traffic during his final run in Q2 for failing to make it into the top ten shoot-out in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix
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."
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments