Heidfeld Happy Despite 'Frustrating' Qualifying

German Nick Heidfeld was pleased with his performance in Saturday's qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix after putting his Sauber in seventh place.

Heidfeld, driving the Ferrari-powered C21 chassis, occupied the 'best of the rest' position, behind the Ferraris, Williams and McLarens. The young German, who was forced into retirement at the start of the Australian Grand Prix, was happy with the result, but admitted he endured a frustrated session.

"Overall I'm pleased to be seventh, though qualifying was a bit frustrating," admitted Heidfeld. "I lost my first run to yellow flags, and set my best time on the second. We made a change to the car that didn't work for the third, and I abandoned the fourth, which would have been the best, when I got held up by traffic.

"But we know our cooling is satisfactory and that the car is strong on a race fuel load, so I'm optimistic for tomorrow."

Teammate Felipe Massa, who had already had problems on Friday after spinning off the track, was not as lucky as Heidfeld, the Brazilian suffering a mechanical problem at the start of his first run.

However, 20-year old Massa, driving at Sepang for the first time, recovered well and was able to set the 14th quickest time, less than a second behind the other Sauber.

"Unfortunately for me, something went wrong in the front right suspension on my first run, so I had to get a lift back to the pits to take over the spare car," said Massa. "That was set up for me, but it had a lot more understeer than my race car so I was struggling to get a good lap time. I think I got the best from it, but it's disappointing."