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Heidfeld gets 3 points in a crazy night race
By BMW Sauber F1 Team September 28 2008
In a dramatic inaugural Singapore Grand Prix, the BMW Sauber F1 Team had to cope with a large dose of bad luck. Nick Heidfeld came home sixth to add two points to the team's tally. Robert Kubica, however, had to settle for finishing 11th and leaving Singapore empty-handed.
For the BMW Sauber F1 Team the bad luck started even before the race had begun. Nick, who had qualified sixth, received a three-position grid-penalty for reputedly having impeded Honda's Rubens Barrichello in qualifying and consequently had to start from ninth.

Nonetheless, everything seemed to run as planned for the BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers in the opening stages of the race. At the start, Robert successfully defended his fourth place, while Nick passed Nico Rosberg (Williams) to continue in eighth.

After that, everything went smoothly for the pairing, until Nelson Piquet crashed on lap 15 resulting in a safety-car period, at the worst imaginable point in time for Robert. Two laps later, the pit lane was still closed but the Pole ran out of fuel and had to come in. Consequently, he received a 10-second stop-and-go penalty.

A penalty that cost him dearly: When Robert rejoined the race, after having come in for his penalty on lap 28, he was 18th and his race was virtually over. Subsequently, he drove a fine race and gained several positions but finishing 11th was the best he could achieve.

Meanwhile, Nick pitted - like nearly everybody else - when the pit lane was officially opened but also lost several positions as he dropped back behind four drivers - among them the eventual race winner Fernando Alonso - who had pitted before the safety-car phase. The German now held 11th but refused to let this second unfortunate situation make an impact on his performance.

Throughout the race, Nick displayed amazing fighting spirit and worked his way up the field position by position. It has to be admitted that he benefited from several mistakes by other drivers and teams, but at the end of the day he drove a flawless race and was rewarded with a well-deserved sixth place and another three World Championship points.

Despite the slightly disappointing result, the BMW Sauber F1 Team leaves Singapore in a confident mood. After all, Robert and Nick both demonstrated once again that the BMW Sauber F1.08 has what it takes to battle it out for the top positions. In two weeks time, in the Japanese Grand Prix, the Munich and Hinwil based squad will try hard to continue on this level of competitiveness in order to score more valuable World Championship points.

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