Heidfeld: I could have gone faster

Heidfeld lost time after making a mistake in the first corner, but recovered in the final two sectors of the lap after taking care of his tyres, whilst team-mate Frentzen set a blinding pace in the opening two sectors, only to be slowed in the final part of the lap when his Bridgestone tyres grained.

"I am happy that now it has become obvious how much we have improved the C22's performance, because it was not so clear in the last two races," said Heidfeld. "I have mixed feeling because of my mistake in the first corner, when I got into the dirt off line.

"I was able to learn quite a bit about the tyre performance from the other drivers who did their flying lap before me, and therefore chose to run a rather conservative out lap to conserve my tyres as they can start to grain quickly under these track and weather conditions. The decision turned out to be right and allowed me also to score this fast lap, but I could have been faster still."

One of the drivers Heidfeld learnt from with regards tyres was undoubtedly Frentzen, who was close to fastest man Jarno Trulli on lap time until his tyres lost grip.

"Unfortunately I lost some time in the third sector due to graining and so the tyres' performance decreased and I wasn't able to attack any more," said Frentzen. "In the morning I also suffered graining, particularly on the new sections of the track surface."