by Chris Hayes
Nick Heidfeld's championship hopes took a knock in Barcelona after the German failed to score a single point for the first time this season and his rivals all managed to increase their totals.
The
BMW driver was running as high as fifth place after qualifying poorly, but was forced to refuel during the safety car period for
Heikki Kovalainen's horrific accident and suffered from the current rules prohibiting access to pit-lane until the field has packed up.
The subsequent stop-and-go penalty dropped Heidfeld to the back of the pack, effectively ruining his chance of points even though he eventually recovered to ninth place.
“At the start, I managed to gain the two positions I had wanted to, and that's positive because, recently, we have had less impressive starts,” the German commented, doing his best to draw on plusses from the race.
“I was fifth in the race when I had bad luck with the timing of the safety car period and my first pit-stop. I had just passed the pit entry when I got the signal to come in, and I then tried to save fuel and delay my stop but, in the end, it was the choice between running out of fuel or getting a penalty.”
Heidfeld arrived at Barcelona, somewhat unexpectedly, as
Kimi Raikkonen's closest challenger for the championship lead after some sterling drives in the opening 'flyaway' races, but the Spanish result leaves the BMW driver fifth overall, 13 points adrift of the Finn, who took his second win of the season.
Heidfeld ran a customary longer first stint than team-mate
Robert Kubica and this, allied with the timing of the safety car, was the inadvertent cause of his downfall, although BMW Motorsport director Mario Theissen revealed just how close the team came to avoiding the misfortune.
“The safety car period destroyed our strategy,” rued the German, “We literally missed getting Nick into the pit-lane before the safety car by a few seconds. As a result, he had to refuel during the safety car period, and we got a ten-second penalty because of that.
