In the heat of the Bahrain desert, the BMW WilliamsF1 Team collected three points thanks to Mark Webber who finished in sixth position. Team mate Nick Heidfeld had to retire due to an engine failure around the mid-race distance.

Mark Webber: 6th Chassis: FW27 03
Best time: 1:33.087min (lap 20, 10th overall)
It was a tough race for me. Unfortunately with about 20 laps to go I had a spin at turn 10 when I was running third and I lost two positions. My tyres were in bad shape after I spun and the car was difficult to drive because of strong vibrations. So in the last few laps I lost one position to de la Rosa. Everyone in the team did a very good job and also Michelin provided us with good tyres. Now I am looking forward to Imola.

Nick Heidfeld: DNF (engine failure on lap 26) Chassis: FW27 04
Best time: 1:33.055min (lap 19, 9th overall)
It's disappointing not to finish the race, especially because I was running in a very good position and I was on course to collect several useful points. On the other side one has to consider that my engine was the only one in the field that had run in Malaysia already and was having its' second Grand Prix here, in such extreme conditions. Everybody is working flat out at WilliamsF1 and at BMW and it's a shame what happened, nevertheless I am sure we will get some reward in the next races.

Sam Michael (Technical Director WilliamsF1): This is obviously not the result we were aiming for after qualifying. In the ambient conditions we ran the engine at its thermal limits, which may have contributed to Nick's engine failure. In terms of lap times we had to manage the engine revs during the race which made it difficult for both drivers to defend. Either way we are confident that we will be able to race more strongly in Imola.

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): After a strong qualifying we were hoping for more from this race. The intense heat compromised us in two ways. First of all Nick drove the only car with an engine that had already endured the Malaysian heat. The combined temperature effects of both those races was obviously too much. We will find out in Munich what was the exact reason for the failure. The other reason is that even with the car's maximum cooling configuration we were running at thermal-limits and we could not exploit our engines to their full revs and this contributed to Mark being unable to properly defend his good position.

Test: Barcelona: 6-8 April / N. Heidfeld 6,7 / A. Pizzonia 6,8 / M. Webber 7,8
Le Castellet: 13-14 April / M. Webber + A. Pizzonia both days.

2005 Bahrain Grand Prix - Main Page
2005 Bahrain Grand Prix - Team and Driver Race Reports Page

Sunday Qualifying

Weather: dry, sunny. Air 37-38°C, Track 42-47°C

Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber will start from the second and third rows respectively having qualified fourth and fifth for today's Bahrain Grand Prix. Nick equalled his best qualifying ever in F1 while Mark Webber improved his position from sixth to fifth from yesterday's first qualifying session.

Driver
Heidfeld 4th / 1:30.390 8th / 1:32.827 4th / 3:03.217
Webber 6th / 1:30.592 6th / 1:32.670 5th / 3:03.262

Nick Heidfeld: Chassis: FW27 04
I have equalled today my best ever qualifying position in Formula 1 and I am very pleased. Starting from the second row I am potentially much closer to a podium finish here than I was in Malaysia where I started tenth and managed to get into third place. We have a good car for the race and a good strategy. There's no doubt that our car has definitely taken a step forward with the new parts that we have introduced here.

Mark Webber: Chassis: FW27 03 - (T-car FW27 02)
It is pretty harsh to expect the drivers to do a perfect lap on Sunday morning since fuel load, track and wind conditions - especially here - have changed since yesterday afternoon. Some of the corners were very good for me, some others less perfect, but all in all I had a fairly satisfying lap and I have improved one position from yesterday's qualifying.

Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): It was a good qualifying and both our drivers did a good job. Looking at the gap in front of Nick and Mark, I don't think they could have made that up. Now we look to see how the race goes in these extremely hot and testing ambient conditions.

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): Both of our drivers achieved a clean lap again in the second qualifying, with the cars in race conditions. Nick consolidated his fourth place whilst Mark has improved from sixth to fifth. They are both good positions to start the race from. Now the attention is on the temperature that should top what we had two weeks ago in Malaysia. This will drive both man and machine to the very limits.

2005 Bahrain Grand Prix - Main Page

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