Heidfeld encouraged by qualifying form

The German had been unable to match the pace of BMW Sauber teammate Robert Kubica in qualifying, but he was very close in Magny-Cours and outqualified the Pole for the first time this season today at Silverstone.

Although Kubica hit trouble that meant he was unable to set a time in Q3, Heidfeld was still upbeat about his progress after qualifying in fifth.

"I'm quite happy with fifth because it just continues a positive trend which began in qualifying in Magny-Cours, and confirms all our efforts and work have paid off," said Heidfeld.

"I can now manage again to heat up the tyres properly and get them to work, but we shall continue to work on this subject.

"In Q2 Robert and I where just separated by two hundreds of a second. Generally my car was a lot better today than on Friday.

"However, on my last lap in Q3 it felt a little bit strange, so we have to find out what this was. I think we shall have an exciting race tomorrow. There is a high chance of rain."

Kubica had to settle for 10th position after he had a technical problem during his first run in Q3.

"It was a difficult qualifying in the end," he said. "Finally we were on the right pace. Qualifying 1 was good and qualifying 2 was even better, as the first time on option tyres was very good.

"I backed off in the last sector to just bring the car home, and it was still enough to be two or three tenths off the McLaren time.

"In qualifying 3 I went through the first sector without any problems, but then I felt the same problem at the rear I felt on Friday. Now we have to analyse everything and see what is going on."