Heidfeld Predicts Tough Race

BMW discovered a defective exhaust valve on Friday, which meant that Heidfeld's teammate Mark Webber was kept off the track so that he would not also have to suffer a grid penalty.

Unlike Heidfeld, Webber was already due to have a new engine in Spain.

The German driver completed a promising performance in today's qualifying, posting the fifth quickest time, right in front of Webber.

"I am happy with my lap today, although I didn't push flat out knowing that I will have to start my race from the back," said Heidfeld. "With regards to the set-up of my car, it was much better in qualifying compared to this morning's free practice sessions.

"Since we have known that I will have to start from the back we have concentrated even more on race set-up and I am quite confident that we have the potential for a strong race tomorrow. We are going to try our best on Sunday but it's not going to be easy starting from the back."

Webber, meanwhile, was pleased with his effort given the lack of running.

"I had a pretty clean lap notwithstanding that this place is incredibly sensitive to the wind. Anyway, it's the same for everyone else," said Webber.

"I didn't have any running at all yesterday, due to the engine issue and of course I would have preferred to have put a few more laps under my belt in order to get better prepared for the race, but that's what I've got and 6th is not too bad.

"Since they laid the new tarmac, this is a different Barcelona circuit to what we were used to in the past. It's pretty good and a lot easier on the tyres compared to what we had before."