Formula One news

Struggle on softer tyres for BMW

The BMW team has enduring a frustrating start to the 2009 championship, which did not improve on Saturday in China as both drivers suffered using the Super Soft tyre. Nick Heidfeld qualified eleventh in the qualifying session, his worst grid position so far this year, as Kubica was the shock surprise by being eliminated in only the first phase of the hour.

"My first and quickest lap in Q2 was the best I could get out of the car, and it was a really good one," admitted Heidfeld. "I was hoping to get an even better lap time on the second run, just because the track conditions always improve during qualifying, but then for some reason with that set of option tyres (Super Soft) the grip wasn't there - we have to find out why that was."

The German was keen to point out the margin by which he missed the final period - one hundredth of a second. "Nevertheless it is obvious we have a lack of pace," he added. "We hope an aerodynamic update, which will come for the Spanish Grand Prix, will help us."

"The car had no grip and was not at all easy to drive," said a frustrated Kubica, who experienced his worst ever qualifying session. "I struggled with the softer tyre compound. After this morning's session I didn't expect this at all, as the gap between softer and harder tyres was bigger then; I also made a mistake under braking for Turn 12, which cost me my lap time."

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