|
Weather: Sunny, dry. Temp: Air 32-33 °C, Track 40-47°C, Humidity 55-59%
Montreal (CAN). Mark Webber today scored four valuable points for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team by finishing in 5th place, having started from 14thon the grid. In an hectic race, where only 11 cars out of 20 reached the end, Nick Heidfeld was forced to retire after 43 laps when running in 7th position due to an overheated and, therefore, failed engine.
Mark Webber: 5th Best time: 1:15,401 (lap 23, 7th overall)
Chassis: FW27 05 / BMW P84/5 engine 2nd GP
There's no doubt that finishing fifth having started from 14th position is a good result. My start was quite good and I was on the inside on the first corner, so I managed to get away all right. The first part of every stint was quite tricky because the tyre warm up was difficult, especially in the breaking area. This is why I slid wide twice with very poor grip. The car was better to drive as the fuel load lessened. But again, when the safety car came out it was difficult to keep the tyre temperatures up but I managed to get back into shape as soon as it went in. Then, it was just a matter of getting to the end of the race. We managed to get something good out of an average weekend and this is what counts, four points and a decent starting position for my qualifying in Indy next week.
Nick Heidfeld: DNF (engine, lap 44) Best time: 1:15,752 (lap 20, 9th overall)
Chassis: FW27 04 / BMW P84/5 engine 2nd GP
My starting position wasn't good but, in hindsight, not being able to finish the race is even more disappointing. Because many of the cars that were in front of me didn't see the chequered flag, I could have been on the podium today! I had a good start, and a reasonably good race, but I was following Felipe Massa for too long trying to overtake him. This severely limited the cooling of my engine and eventually caused it to overheat and fail. I tried to pull over to the side a few times to get out of his slipstream but it still wasn't enough.
Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1):
It is good to pick up some points, but it is a shame because a lot more was possible with potentially at least one car on the podium. However, circumstances prevented us from achieving that. The brakes on the cars were fine, and the tyres were solid as well. This result moves us into equal third place in the Constructors' Championship and we are aiming to build on that in Indy.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
It was more than a turbulent race. If you start from positions 13 and 14 and get rewarded with four points, under normal circumstances one would be happy. But today there was more within our reach. The ambient temperature has been significantly higher today than what we had expected, which caused the engines to run over their temperature limits. In Nick's case, continuously driving in a slipstream hampered the air flow to cool the engine which created an additional problem. This finally caused the engine failure. During the last few laps, when Mark wasn't affected by traffic, we decided to reduce the load on his engine.
Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
BMW Racing News 
Thursday, 15 May 2008
BMWsport Home | BMW Racing News | Racing Schedules | BMW AG News | BMWsport Site News | Photo Galleries | BMW e30 Owners | For Sale | Giveaways | Sponsors | BMW Tech | Geneva Auto Show | 2006 BMW M5 | NAIAS | Product Reviews | Special BMW's | BMW History | Main Download Page | BMW Wallpapers | Videos | WinAMP Skins | Search | Links | Affiliates | Sitemap | 