Rogue Profile of Nick Heidfeld

“I braked hard, but the car started to slide and the only way I could pass the Arrows was on the left,” Heidfeld said.

“In the beginning my car felt very good and I was having no problem staying ahead of Fisichella,” Nick explained. “After my stop I got held up in traffic and then I learned of my first speeding penalty, a drive through. I got another one as I left the pits on that occasion, and this time it was a 10s stop and go for the second offence. What else is there to say?”

“I braked too hard and flat-spotted the right front tyre on my first run, and that create vibrations that never went away. Maybe it did some small damage, I don’t know,” he explained. “After that the car never felt as good as it did this morning, but we made a small change for the final run and that was my best. I just pushed flat-out; it was the maximum I could achieve. Ninth is still a good place to start, and I’m confident for the race.”

Nick Heidfeld forced the marshals to bring out the waved yellow flags, forty-two
minuets into the second of Friday’s practice sessions. Searching for grip on the
damp and greasy track he ran wide exiting tun four, sliding on to the wet grass.
The car lost all traction and Heidfeld was helpless to prevent the rear of his
car slamming into the barriers, the impact twisted the Sauber round, it’s front
portion meeting the barriers too.

“All through the morning session I was struggling to get the car balanced,
and new tyres tended to make it understeer more,” Nick explained.
“On the lap that I crashed this afternoon I was pushing harder and the car
felt a little bit better, but I ran wide on to the kerb up at the chicane after
I went into the corner a little bit too quick, and as soon as you get on the dirt
here you are in trouble. I spun and hit the wall, and that was end of my session.”

On Saturday afternoon, Nick Heildfeld was the ninth driver to take to the track
in the "last chance saloon" of "one shot" qualifying. After
he finished his timed lap he started to cruise on his way back to the pits. The
German could have been doing this to save fuel, or his motive could have been
more sinister.

In the previous days’ qualifying session, rookie Christiano da Matta put in
a performance in his TF103 that was nothing short of spell binding. DaMatta had
the least track time of any driver as Toyota had opted for a full testing program
but for the first two sectors of his fast lap, the Brazilian looked as if he had
been born in that car, on that track. Come the third sector of the lap his front
Michelin tyres began to groan under the strain and he slipped back. In Formula
one first impressions count and as first impressions go, this was world class.

Pre-season testing had suggested that Toyota would be close to Sauber, if not
faster and so daMatta, who was running after Heildfeld was direct competition.
Heildfeld drove the first part of his in-lap very slowly to allow daMatta to catch
and then, in what looked like an attempt to distract the Brazilian, speeded up
to hover in his field of vision before pulling into the pits before just before
his lead became a deficit. Da Matta’s lap was full of errors. Had Heidfeld’s plan
come to fruition? Did he have the plan in the first place, or was the Toyota a
victim of the high winds that day? One thing is for sure; the way Heildfeld drove
the last lap was mightily suspicious.

The safety car was deployed to clean up the mess.

As he slid through the gravel, Heidfeld even managed to express his anger at Buemi.