Spare Car Switch Pays Off for Heidfeld

German Nick Heidfeld was happy with his decision to switch to the spare car to put on a promising performance in today's final qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix.

Sauber driver Heidfeld, who said after today's practice session that the balance of his Petronas-powered C22 was "the worst I have known in a long time", managed to leave the problems behind in the afternoon's qualifying session to post the 11th quickest time.

"I had been struggling to find a good balance on my race car all weekend, and just before this afternoon's pre-qualifying warm-up I took the decision to switch to the T-car," said Heidfeld. "We weren't able to make all the necessary changes in time for the warm-up, but were able to make more for qualifying.

"That meant that for the second day in a row I went into qualifying in a car that was not fully familiar, but I enjoyed the best balance I have had all weekend and I think we are moving in the right direction again."

Teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen qualified in 14th position after losing his engine in this morning's practice session. The German, however, was happy with his performance and looking forward to a good race.

"It was unfortunate that I lost a lot of time with an engine failure this morning, but my crew did a great job to change the unit in time for me to do an installation lap at the end of the session," Frentzen said. "There was a knock-on effect this afternoon, but taking that into account I am happy.

"The balance was good and Nick was able to do further good work this morning which helped to stand us in good stead for qualifying and the race tomorrow."