Formula One news

Pit lane traffic slows Heidfeld

Unlike compatriots Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg, Nick Heidfeld was unable to enjoy a successful home Grand Prix in Germany as the BMW finished in tenth place. Although a top ten result is more encouragement for the struggling team in 2009, traffic and a problem in the pits halted the charge of the 32-year-old.

Known as 'Quick Nick' by his fans, Heidfeld was not as speedy as he would have wished to be at the Nürburgring after finishing one place above his qualifying position. "I am very disappointed because today we had the speed to score points, which obviously hasn't always been the case this year, but several things just went wrong," he explained after the race.

Heidfeld has scored just six points so far in the 2009 season

"The start was good for the first few metres and I tried to improve my position but Adrian Sutil's defending was very tough. Then the first stint wasn't easy with the heavy fuel load but during the middle stint I was able to catch up until I lost some time behind slower cars, including that of Robert. I had bad luck at the pit-stop as we were ready to leave the pit but a Renault came in and I had to wait - it felt as if it took ages before the lollipop went up."

"I had a very good start and gained a lot of positions on the first lap," added team-mate Kubica, who finished three places further back after starting 16th. "Although I had a lot of tyre degradation, the first stint was quite good. Nico Rosberg was on primes (harder compound tyre, this weekend Medium) in front of me and he was really quick; I changed to primes for the second stint and after a couple of laps I noticed that the tyre pressures were not right. Unfortunately, this cost me a lot of time and I still had around 20 laps to go."

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