Despite
BMW Motorsport Director Dr Mario Theissen's optimism that BMW Sauber will win its first race during the course of the 2008
Formula 1 season following back-to-back runner-up spots in the opening two grands prix,
Robert Kubica has warned that the team is still lacking those vital few tenths of a second needed to compete for the top step of the rostrum on merit.
The Pole finished second in last weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix, almost 20 seconds adrift of race-winner
Kimi Raikkonen in the
Ferrari but a similar margin ahead of third-placed
Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren-Mercedes. He professed himself delighted with his performance after the race, particularly in the wake of a disappointing outcome in Melbourne when he slipped down the order after qualifying on the front row of the grid for the first time in his fledgling career in the top flight and the fact that he had felt far from his best in the Sepang heat.
In Australia I qualified second with a small mistake which cost me pole position, Kubica acknowledged, [but] the race pace there was not really fantastic, especially in the first stint. Here we worked mainly on the race pace. I knew with some solutions which we chose we would suffer a bit in qualifying, but then in the race it paid off, so I'm very happy for myself, for the team and for Petronas.
It is a fantastic result for the team the second time we have second place in a grand prix in a row. After an unlucky Australian Grand Prix I finally have a podium after Monza 2006!
I didn't have a good start. There was some wheelspin which compromised my acceleration, so it was quite a close fight with [Jarno] Trulli and Nick [Heidfeld team-mate] into the first corner. I nearly lost the car on braking as I was inside on the dirty side but I think they touched, so I managed to overtake them.
