Monaco Grand Prix

In a thrilling 2007 Monaco Grand Prix, the BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld finished fifth and sixth respectively. With this result they scored seven valuable championship points and consolidated the team's position as "third power" on the Formula One grid.

With a clever one-stop strategy the BMW Sauber F1 Team helped its driver pairing to claim another good result from their seventh and eighth grid positions. Furthermore, the team optimised its chances by having Nick start the race on Bridgestone's "supersoft" compound while Robert contested his first stint on the slightly harder compound.

In the opening stages of the 78-lap race, Nick seemed to be the one who would benefit from the different strategies. While the German passed Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) and Nico Rosberg (Williams) at the start to move up to fifth position, Robert lost his eighth place to Rubens Barrichello (Honda) and continued in ninth.

Subsequently, Nick suffered as a result of the quickly decreasing performance of his supersofts and his lap times were about two seconds slower than those of the front runners. When his tyres had recovered after 15 laps, however, he was able to set competitive lap times. At the same time Robert was hampered by traffic and had no chance of gaining ground.

On lap 33, Nick made his first and only pit stop. Now running on the harder compound, he rejoined in ninth position, behind several cars that had not yet come in for their first pit stops. Over the course of the following laps the cars in front of him also pitted - and Nick was up to sixth position again.

At the same time, Robert set several really quick lap times and was even able to match the pace of the front-runners. A particularly amazing feat as the Pole contested his first stint on a heavy fuel load and came in for his only stop later than Nick - on lap 46. Thanks to these fast laps, he rejoined the race ahead of his team-mate in fifth position. Afterwards, Robert and Nick cruised to the finish as they weren't under any pressure from behind, though they had no chance of pressurising the cars ahead of them.

In the Drivers' Championship, Nick is now ranked fifth, having 18 points under his belt. Robert has 12 points to his tally and holds seventh place in the classification. The BMW Sauber F1 Team's gap over fourth-placed Renault in the Constructors' Championship is now 14 points.

The next FIA Formula One World Championship round will be held on 10th June in Montreal, Canada.