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Hungary: Most Disappointing race for BMW in 2008
By BMW Sauber F1 Team August 3 2008
For the BMW Sauber F1 Team, the Hungarian Grand Prix proved to be the most difficult race of the 2008 season to date. At the end of the day, Robert Kubica scored one point for the Munich and Hinwil based squad while Nick Heidfeld had to leave Budapest empty-handed.
In the practice sessions and in qualifying at the Hungaroring, the BMW Sauber F1.08 had been far more competitive than it proved to be over the course of the 11th race of the season. Consequently, Robert was unable to fight for another podium finish and had to be satisfied with making it into the top-8.

Nick gained a position when Toro Rosso's Sébastien Bourdais received a five-position grid penalty for having impeded the BMW Sauber F1 Team driver in the first knockout phase of qualifying. Consequently, he started from 15th position on the grid.

The start itself went quite well for the BMW Sauber F1 Team: Robert, starting from the dirty side of the grid, lost one position, and dropped back to fifth, behind Toyota's Timo Glock. Nick passed Nico Rosberg (Williams) and Jenson Button (Honda) at the start, and also overtook Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso) for 12th on the first lap.

From this point in time, however, making further progress proved to be extremely difficult for the BMW Sauber F1 Team pairing. Neither Robert nor Nick - who was racing on a one-stop strategy and therefore had to cope with a heavy load of fuel - had what was needed to match the pace of the cars ahead of them. Robert lost his chance of securing a podium finish when making his first pit stop as early as lap 19. When everybody racing on a two-stop strategy had come in for their first stops, the 23-year-old was running in ninth. Nick had gained another place and continued in 11th.

Robert and Nick both seemed to be virtually glued to their positions. On lap 42, Nick came in for his only stop and rejoined in 12th behind Red Bull's David Coulthard. When the Scot pitted on lap 54, Nick was back in 11th, but with no chance of gaining further positions.

For a long time it looked as if Robert also would have to leave the Hungaroring empty-handed. But with just two more laps to go, on lap 68, Ferrari's race leader, Felipe Massa, was stopped by an engine failure. Robert benefited from the incident, moved up to eighth and scored the final point. Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren) claimed his maiden Formula One victory.

The Hungarian Grand Prix turned out to be a disappointing race for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. Now the team will work extremely hard to use the three-week summer break to improve the BMW Sauber F1.08's competitiveness

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