Malaysia Quali: Kubica only manages 6th, Heidfeld 11th

By BMW Sauber F1
April 4 2009

Having finished eighth in qualifying for the Malaysian GP, Robert Kubica will start sixth on tomorrow's grid, thanks to the penalties incurred by two drivers. Nick Heidfeld finished 11th in Q2, thus failing to advance to the Top-Ten Qualifying - but he also benefits from the penalties. Consequently, he will start from tenth on the grid.

In Q1 for the Malaysian Grand Prix, neither Nick nor Robert had problems advancing to the second knockout phase. Both BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers went out twice and both set their personal fastest lap times on their second runs on softs, the softer of the two tyre compounds available. Nick crossed the line in 1:35.110 minutes to finish ninth, with Robert finishing tenth with his 1:35.166-minute lap. The fastest lap time of Q1 (1:34.745 minutes) was posted by Toyota's Jarno Trulli.

Eliminated: Felipe Massa, Nelson Piquet, Giancarlo Fisichella, Adrian Sutil and Sebastien Buemi.

As was the case in Australia, Robert Kubica was the only BMW Sauber F1 Team driver to advance to the Top-Ten Qualifying phase. On his second run, the Pole set a 1:34.562-minute lap to secure ninth position. Nick, however, encountered another difficult second knockout phase. The German had been the faster of the pairing following the first run, but failed to improve on his second. At the end of the day, he had to settle for finishing eleventh with his 1:34.769-minute lap. Nonetheless, the German will start tenth on the Malaysian Grand Prix grid as he benefits from the 10-position grid penalty Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel received in Australia for causing the collision with Robert. The fastest time, a 1:33.784-minute lap, was clocked by Brawn GP's Jenson Button.

Eliminated: Nick Heidfeld, Kazuki Nakajima, Lewis Hamilton, Heikki Kovalainen and Sébastien Bourdais.

In the top-ten shootout, Robert secured sixth on the Malaysian GP grid. On his second run, the Pole crossed the line in 1:36.106 minutes, thus finishing eighth on the time sheets. However, thanks to the ten-position grid penalty for Vettel and a five-position grid penalty for Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello, following a gearbox change, the BMW Sauber F1 Team driver gains two grid positions and starts tomorrow's race from P6.

Result: 1st Jenson Button 2nd Jarno Trulli, 3rd Sebastian Vettel, 4th Rubens Barrichello, 5th Timo Glock, 6th Nico Rosberg, 7th Mark Webber, 8th Robert Kubica, 9th Kimi Räikkönen, 10th Fernando Alonso.