Both BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers made it into the second qualifying session, but unfortunately for the Hinwil based squad, neither managed to move up into the top ten for the final shootout.

Still struggling with the car on the winding and bumpy new part of the circuit, Pedro de la Rosa qualified 14th for the first race of the season in Bahrain, his first in active competition for many years, and despite his disappointment with the final position, the Spanish racer enjoyed the session.  

“I can’t say I’m satisfied because before we came here we expected to be a bit higher up. But we already knew yesterday this is a bad track for us with the new infield. I have to blame myself for losing a couple of tenths, because I made mistakes on my very last lap when I just pushed too hard because at this time there wasn’t much to lose,” he explained.

“So this was not good and it will be a tough race tomorrow for the drivers and teams, especially in terms of tyre management. I’m afraid they will overheat from lap one. Well, despite not being happy with the result, in a way I have to say I still enjoyed my first qualifying after three years.

Meanwhile, teammate Kamui Kobayashi, one of the five rookies on this year’s grid, qualified 16^th overall and like everyone else in the team, the young Japanese racer had expected more from the first qualifying session of the season.

“After winter testing we thought we would be quicker, but we are really struggling with the bumpy new part of the track. Of course the temperatures are much higher here, which is also something new as we now see what the effect is between the car and the tyres,” he said. “We have to work really hard for improvements. Tomorrow’s race will be hard but I still hope our car will not be hard on the tyres and we can move up a bit. There is always a chance for points.”

As Willy Rampf, Technical Director of the team explained, based on the results in winter testing their goal was to get one car into Q3. However, they missed that by a big margin so the aim is now to try and make up positions in the race using the right strategic options which are now allowed by the new rules.