On lap 27 of the Canadian GP, an accident involving Robert Kubica overshadowed the race action. Thankfully, the Pole survived the massive impact without suffering serious injuries. Therefore, the BMW Sauber F1 Team had the opportunity to celebrate with Nick Heidfeld, who crossed the line in second place.
The race at Montreal’s “Circuit Gilles Villeneuve” was a truly tumultuous one, with just twelve of the twenty-two drivers making it to the finish line. BMW Sauber F1 Team driver Robert Kubica was the man who suffered the worst accident. The first of four safety car periods had just ended, and the 22-year-old had completed his first pit stop, when he went off at high speed while approaching the hairpin. His BMW Sauber F1.07 hit the concrete wall and rolled over. Trackside doctors extricated Robert from the car’s undamaged safety cell and took him to the circuit’s medical centre. Following an initial check-up, Robert was flown out by helicopter to hospital for extensive examinations.
At the start, Robert successfully defended his eighth position. When pitting on lap 25, he had moved up to a highly promising sixth place. Two laps later the crash meant an early end to his race. Nevertheless, Nick continued in great style providing the BMW Sauber F1 Team with its biggest success so far. The 30-year-old laid the foundation for this result right at the start. He got away well and used a mistake by Fernando Alonso (McLaren) to move up to second place. Afterwards, Nick demonstrated the F1.07’s competitiveness by keeping the two-time World Champion at bay and being the second fastest driver - behind the subsequent winner Lewis Hamilton - at this stage of the race.
On lap 23, the chaos truly began with Adrian Sutil (Spyker) hitting the wall at turn eight, resulting in the first safety car period. A short time later, the safety car had to come out for the second time, due to Robert’s crash. Further collisions and off-track excursions made for two further safety car periods, from laps 51 to 54 and 56 to 60.
Thanks to two flawless pit stops, on laps 21 and 48 respectively, Nick was never in danger of losing his runner-up position. At the end of the day he crossed the finish line just 4.3 seconds behind Hamilton - thus securing the best result in the BMW Sauber F1 Team’s history and equalising the best finishes in his own career. Back in 2005, the German finished runner-up in the Monaco and European GPs.
Thanks to this success, Nick now has a total of 26 World Championship points to his tally and is fifth position in the Drivers’ Championship, while helping the BMW Sauber F1 Team (38 points) to consolidate its third place in the Constructors’ Championship at the same time.
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