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F1: BMW Happier with Third, Says Theissen
Written by: Adam Cooper
RACER Magazine   http://www.racer.com/speedtv
09/17/2007 - 07:00 PM
Spa, Belgium
 
Theissen allowed Kubica to run a "fun" strategy at Spa. (LAT Photo) ยป More Photos

BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen says he would have been happier to have finished a genuine third in the constructors' championship, rather than inherit second by default after McLaren's exclusion.

The unexpected promotion takes the shine off what has been an impressive achievement for the team, and clearly makes promoting its official result a little awkward.

"I would prefer to be third," he admitted to SPEEDtv.com. "We are proud of the third position we achieved. Second is just for the statistics. To me it's important that there are four cars quicker than ours, four cars in front of us, and we have to close the gap. It's as simple as that."

At Spa last weekend Nick Heidfeld earned the team its familiar "best of the rest" position in fifth, despite losing ground at the start. Robert Kubica failed to make the points after suffering an engine penalty and also making a bad start.



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the people, science and history of Formula 1 each month in RACER. Tony Dodgins looks into the complex issues behind the McLaren/Ferrari spy scandal in our October issue, on sale now.


"For the first time this year we had poor starts with both cars, so instead of fifth or sixth after the start, Nick found himself in ninth position. He showed a strong race, went up to fifth, so that was the optimum result he could achieve.

"Robert did a great job to do, and it was fun to watch him. He showed some great overtaking maneuvers. Finally he got stuck behind Kovalainen, but that was still fun to watch! Compared to the cars he was fighting, he could have gone more than a second faster in Sector 2, but he couldn't overtake on the straight."

Interestingly despite having an engine penalty Kubica still ran as light as possible in qualifying, knowing that he would start well down the field and behind a lot of late stoppers.

"We didn't want him to have a boring race, we wanted to put him in a position to overtake cars. I think it was much more fun for him and for us!"