UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Heidfeld's hour

Nick quick at Spa

Whatever Mario Theissen has said to Nick Heidfeld in this past couple of weeks has had the desired effect, for the German has looked more at one with the BMW F1.08 than his much rated team mate Robert Kubica all weekend.

None more so than this morning, when a late session run from Heidfeld put the bearded ‘veteran’ top of the timesheets after an hour in which the front-runners shied away from the wet conditions.

Notably, Heidfeld was out early, too, when the track was at it’s worst, and had aborted a lap that looked very quick prior to easing in to the top spot – with a time of 1:47.876 the only one under the 108 second barrier, and three tenths up on next man Heikki Kovalainen.

The Finn was consistently quicker than everyone in the first sector for lap after lap, and beat Fernando Alonso to the runner up spot by just over a tenth, with Lewis Hamilton in the second McLaren a fraction shy of the Spaniard.

Fastest Ferrari was Felipe Massa, some three tenths down on Hamilton in conditions not ideal for the Ferrari, with Kimi Raikkonen seventh and almost a second off the pace.

Between the red cars came Sebastian Vettel – impressive as ever for STR – and Nico Rosberg, revelling in the conditions in a promising looking Williams, with the final top ten runners being nelson piquet for Renault and Mark Webber in the Red Bull.

Toyota had a troubled day with both cars out of the top ten, and Honda had Jenson Button crawl to a halt on the opening lap, while Force India showed well early on only to falter as the track became dry.

Heidfeld redeemed himself somewhat by coming home well over a second ahead of Kubica, and will be looking to repeat the performance this afternoon, and tomorrow, on a weekend that is looking better for him than many have of late.

Written: Sat, 06 Sep 2008 10:22:55