Heidfeld delighted despite no victory

Heidfeld, who has spent seven seasons in the team previously known as Sauber, had to settle for second after Kubica took full advantage of the retirements of Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton.

The German seemd to have a chance of winning during some parts of the race, but in the end Kubica's pace prove unmatchable.

It was the second time this season that the Pole made history for BMW, having already taken their first pole position.

Despite missing out of victory, Heidfeld was delighted with the result.

"Obviously I'm very happy with second position," he said. "It was a good race for me and a good result in the situation I am in at the moment," said Heidfeld, who is struggling with his performance with the softer tyres.

"We have seen over the weekend it is going better for me."

He added: "I have been with team since the beginning, with BMW and Williams with Sauber. It's great to have a victory with Robert and a one-two. It shows we are still going in the right direction.

"It shows in the last three we years achieved our goals which we did set quite high.

"Now for next year our target is to fight for the championship. We are working flat out for that. A big thanks to the team, especially the guys in Hinwil who built me a new chassis after Monaco."

The result was Heidfeld's second podium of the season following second place in Australia.

Heidfeld said the track conditions were better than he had expected following the problems with the surface cracking up during qualifying.

"On one side it was not what an F1 circuit should look like, but it was a lot better than I expected. Yesterday in qualifying was even worse than today in the race, so the repairs they did today were good."