Heidfeld Satisfied Despite Troubled Race

Jordan's Nick Heidfeld was satisfied with his performance at today's Japanese Grand Prix following a challenging race.

"For the first part of the race I had quite a loose rear and we made some adjustments at the first pitstop, which certainly helped," said Heidfeld after finishing down in 13th position.

"I had one or two small electronic issues, maybe something on the gearbox as on one of the pit stops I couldn't get into neutral. Also at one point suddenly the pitlane speed limiter was on while I was on the circuit and I lost a couple of seconds there.

"Otherwise, I think in the circumstances, given that we did not have a lot of time to practice here, I'm happy with our starting set-up and what we achieved in the race."

Heidfeld's teammate Timo Glock, in only his third Grand Prix start, also had a difficult race and could only finish in 15th position, over two laps behind race winner Michael Schumacher.

"The car set-up was not that good and I had everything: oversteering, understeering, changes in the pitstops didn't seem to help much and the car didn't feel easy to drive," said Glock. "I had big problems and couldn't find a rhythm.

"Added to that I had gear problems and a crash with Kimi Raikkonen that I didn't see coming â€" all in all it was a bad race for me."