Heidfeld Optimistic for Saturday

The Williams driver, who claimed his maiden pole position at the European Grand Prix, struggled in the next race in Montreal, qualifying outside the top ten.

But after setting the fifth fastest time in today's practice sessions, Heidfeld is feeling optimistic of a good showing tomorrow.

"We went quite good today and finished fifth in the end," said Heidfeld. "In the morning, the lap times were OK despite me not being happy with the car balance. My feeling on tomorrow is that we should be in better shape than in Canada.

"I like this circuit. I don't know why, but in the past I've always seemed to be quite quick here, and again today I think was quite good."

Teammate Mark Webber did not have such a good day and finished down in 14th position.

"We've done some set-up work today, trying a few different things across the cars," said Webber. "We completed the tyre comparison, and the car ran reliably throughout.

"We know we have some work to do tonight, when we will go through all the data and we have some more improvements to do on the balance."