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A Sunday to remember – a Sunday to forget
Wednesday 28 May 2008
It was a day of mixed fortunes for the BMW Sauber team as Robert Kubica snatched second place in the Monaco Grand Prix, while Nick Heidfeld finished dead last.
Kubica earned the team's fourth podium finish of the season, underlining their current status as a top three outfit.
"I am very happy with the result. I didn't expect us to have the pace to finish second," admitted Kubica, whose best lap, 1:17.933 on lap 75, was the fifth fastest overall. "It was a great race with very difficult driving conditions, and we did not expect such heavy rain.
"I had visibility and tyre problems throughout the whole race. I was trying to make as few mistakes as possible, as it is very dangerous if you make a mistake here."
The conditions - the race started in the wet and steadily dried out - made this an extremely demanding day, but it wasn't the weather that put paid to team-mate Heidfeld's chances. It was Fernando Alonso.
Heidfeld had navigated his way up to fifth from his starting position of 12th when Alonso collided with him on lap 14. Heidfeld was able to nurse his damaged car through the rest of the race, but he was the last to finish, in a disappointing 14th place.
"After the awful qualifying the early laps of the race went very well for me, despite the tricky track conditions," he said. "I was up to fifth, but unfortunately Fernando Alonso made a mistake and crashed into the side of my car. This caused heavy damage to the left hand side of my car, and due to a puncture I had to pit. I was then last and, because of the damaged car, I had no chance at all to improve.
"It is a Sunday to forget."
(Pictured is Robert Kubica. Photo © BMW AG)
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