“Now after the race I'm much happier than I was yesterday,” the 30-year-old acknowledged, having lined up only sixth on the starting grid. “Having finished fourth is a positive result after what was a difficult weekend for me.
“The car's balance on this track was just not how I wanted it to be – I hope I won't have such troubles again. Finishing the race just one position behind my team-mate, who started from pole while I was sixth, is a good result. I enjoyed overtaking
Jarno Trulli and
Heikki Kovalainen. Once again for us in the team everything went smoothly.”
BMW Motorsport Director Dr Mario Theissen was confident afterwards that there was more speed still to be extracted from the
F1.08 – which endured an initially troubled birth back at the start of the year – though he insisted the reason that both cars suffered slightly stuttering getaways when the lights went out must be thoroughly investigated.
“The third podium in the third race,” reflected the 55-year-old German. “This was really a tailor-made start to the season for our team. Finishing third and fourth in Bahrain with Robert and Nick was a very good result, and our performance gives everybody extra motivation for the coming weeks.
“Both drivers lost positions at the start; the reason may be technical and must be analysed. Later on both drove excellent races and the pit-stops went perfectly. In the end the gap to the Ferraris was really small. The car still has more potential for us to exploit, and we shall continue to do this carefully one step at a time.”
“Basically the race went as expected,” added technical director Willy Rampf. “We knew we could not match the pace of the Ferraris here and planned our strategy accordingly. Robert and Nick made the most out of it by finishing in third and fourth.
“It was pleasing to see that in the end the gap to the front wasn't big, and there was no real pressure from behind. After three podiums in three races, we shall make the most of our strengths in the short break and be really motivated to close the gap even further.”
