Heidfeld Enjoys New Qualifying Format

German Nick Heidfeld was one of the first Formula One drivers to give the thumbs-up to the new qualifying format following Friday's first session for the Australian Grand Prix.

The Sauber driver wound up 12th quickest in today's one-hour qualifying where, for the first time, the drivers set their fastest times over a single flying lap that determined the starting order for tomorrow's decisive qualifying session for the season opening race.

Despite a few mistakes on his flying lap, Heidfeld was pleased with how things went.

"I lost some time this morning with a few electronic problems, including a false alarm with the dashboard, and with things the way they are now any loss of time is going to hurt you," explained Heidfeld.

"Taking that into account, I was pretty happy with the way things went this afternoon. I made a couple of little mistakes, but the balance of the car was better and overall I really enjoyed the single-lap qualifying."

Heidfeld's teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished right behind his compatriot in today's session. The veteran German driver, who in practice was hit by electronics problems that forced him to switch to the spare car, was satisfied with his qualifying effort.

"This afternoon that car was a little bit oversteery and that was why I had that wobble at the end of the first sector," he said. "For sure it cost me a little bit of time. But qualifying was okay for me. It's important to put on a good show for the people, and I think we did that. "