Sauber Delighted after Strong Showing

The Sauber team showed their impressive form once more in Saturday's qualifying for the German Grand Prix, where Nick Heidfeld and Kimi Raikkonen occupied the fourth row of the grid ahead of Sunday's race at the Hockenheim circuit.

The Swiss outfit, enjoying their most successful season since they entered Formula One back in 1993, took full advantage of the power of the 2000 Ferrari engines, and Heidfeld was able to lap only three tenths slower than Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello.

Heidfeld, who will start from seventh place tomorrow, was delighted with his performance as well as with his C20 car.

"The car has been great today, which is what I expected yesterday," Heidfeld said. "We focused mainly on race running then, but today the car was just right for qualifying. We made many little changes and they worked well. I think many drivers suffered the yellows at the end.

"They cost me three-tenths, but I'm still happy with seventh place. And after all the work we did yesterday, I'm feeling confident for the race."

Teammate Kimi Raikkonen, driving at the German track for the first time in his career, put another impressive performance to finish right behind Heidfeld. Despite that, the young Finn was not happy with his car.

"It´s been quite a difficult day for me, because the set-up of my car wasn't so good," he admitted. "The handling over the kerbs in the chicanes was really nervous - every time I hit one it upset the car. Things were better on my last run, but then I came across the yellows in the stadium so the lap was not as quick as it should have been."