Heidfeld welcomes 'unexpected' fourth

The German, who had also finished fourth at the season-opening race, completed another strong race for his team with a solid performance that allowed him to beat Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

Heidfeld jumped ahead of the Brazilian when the Ferrari driver went off track early in the race, and despite the superior pace of the Italian car, the German managed to keep Massa behind.

"I'm very happy, this is a fantastic experience," said Heidfeld. "To beat one of the Ferraris might not happen again so soon. In the early part of the weekend Felipe was so superior. After we had major problems with the balance of the car in practice, everything was fine in the race.

"The handling was good and we had no technical problems whatsoever, and I felt fine despite the heat. In the first corner, Robert touched me. He apologized - this can happen. Luckily my car was not damaged.

"I was able to pass Felipe when he went wide, and I was surprised I could keep him behind me quite easily and that he pitted earlier than me.

"During my last stint I was using the harder tyres, and this also worked well. My top speed was good which made it difficult for Felipe to attack.

"It's a great and, also, a little unexpected result. But we should keep our feet on the ground. We have to keep on working in order to avoid some of the mistakes which we are still making."

Heidfeld's race was in stark contrast with teammate Robert Kubica, the Pole suffering all kinds of problems on the way to 18th place.

"I had a big problem, in fact, everything happened in my race today from the gearbox, to a puncture at the beginning of the race," said Kubica. "The pace was really slow and it is better to forget this race quickly. However, we have shown when the car is working we are quick.

"For me in these two races the car was not working, so this is disappointing as the pace in testing was really good. In qualifying the pace was good, then in the race nothing worked.

"My main problem was braking stability, it was impossible to stop the car and I crossed the line at the end with many mistakes, I was locking, going straight and had oversteer. Also during the race we had not communication by radio."