Weather: dry, sunny. Air 30-31°C, Track 47-49°C
Nurburgring (GER) On an unseasonally hot day in May, the BMW WilliamsF1 Team placed both its drivers among the top three fastest, with Nick Heidfeld securing pole, his career first at the front of the grid. Team mate Mark Webber qualified third for tomorrow's Grand Prix of Europe. Heidfeld's pole was the 17th for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team since the Anglo-German partnership commenced in 2000, and is the team's first since the Canadian GP in Montreal, almost a year ago.

 

Nick Heidfeld: 1st (1.30,081 min)
Chassis: FW27 06 (T-car FW27 04) / BMW P84/5 engine: 1. GP
It is fantastic to get my first pole position in Formula One after so many years, and it is even more to have achieved it here at my home Grand Prix in front of my supporters. There is not much more one could ask for. I didn't do too much running yesterday and I was a bit concerned this would affect my performance today, but obviously we made the right tyre choice. This good result today shows Monaco was not a one-off and we are obviously working in the right direction. I am very much looking forward to the race.

 

Mark Webber: 3rd (1.30,368 min)
Chassis: FW27 05 / BMW P84/5 engine: 1. GP
Thanks to everyone at WilliamsF1 and BMW who did an outstanding job again coming here well prepared on a circuit which is pretty different from Monaco where we succeeded last week. Again, being among the top three feels great. It will be a tough race tomorrow and we will see how our tyres behave, since we didn't have much time yesterday to do our homework. We need a good start of course and we have a good strategy.

 

Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1):
We obviously have had a good qualifying session and both drivers and the team have recovered well from yesterday. It's a credit to the engineers to get the right set-up, tyre choice and strategy with not much information. We are confident of a strong showing in the race and have no issues on reliability and the brake and engine cooling is under control. Now we are looking forward to a strong race tomorrow.

 

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
Today's qualifying result is great success for both drivers and all technicians. Yesterday we were not been able to achieve sufficient mileage and collect enough data to make our tyre choice. However, at least for qualifying, the decision was the right one. We'd like to congratulate Nick to the first pole position of his F1 career.