Heidfeld Hoping for Strong Home Race

Jordan driver Nick Heidfeld is confident of a good home race tomorrow despite qualifying down in 18th position in today's qualifying at Hockenheim.

"I'm happy with my lap, and qualifying was better than pre-qualifying," said Heidfeld at the end of final qualifying. "We had a bit of front tyre graining towards the end of the lap but it wasn't a big issue. I think I am in fairly good shape for the race tomorrow.

"The work we did this morning showed that on long runs our tyres have promising performance with no major degradation."

Heidfeld, however, will start the race behind his teammate Giorgio Pantano after the Italian lapped the German circuit less than two tenths quicker.

"I'm quite satisfied but a little worried about missing practice this morning because we didn't have the opportunity to check our race set-up so I don't know how the car will be tomorrow," said the Italian driver, 17th quickest today.

"We went with our set-up and I didn't know how it would turn out this afternoon, I just did my best and as it happened the balance was alright and I did a good lap."