Nick Heidfeld is certain that he can finish in the points today, despite the German starting from the very back of the grid in 24th place.
A fire during final practice engulfed his R31, causing extensive damage which the team were unable to repair before Q1 ended, meaning Heidfeld was the only driver not to set a time.
However, as we’ve seen with Mark Webber in China and Kamui Kobayashi in Turkey, starting at the back of the grid isn’t so bad now the races are heavily dependent on tyres – as the Renault driver points out.
“I’m actually looking forward to the race quite a lot because I have to and I will do quite a lot of overtaking,” he said on Sunday morning.
“As we’ve seen before this season, if you have new tyres you can move forwards, and I’ve got six sets, unfortunately three hard ones are not that quick, but my aim is definitely to get into the points.
“I think it [new tyres] will help me enough to finish in the points, even whilst starting last.
“We will see how far I go forwards. For pure lap time, it’s definitely better but I do have a lot of cars to overtake so if I can pass them, I will have a good result.”
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