BMW hoping to shake up F1 pecking order

LONDON � BMW Sauber took the lead in the Formula One championship for the first time at the weekend in their bid to break the Ferrari-McLaren stranglehold on the sport.

Team boss Mario Theissen hoped the next Spanish Grand Prix would see further progress for his team, whose main target is a first race win this season.

Champions Ferrari and McLaren have between them won the last 21 races. "The next step will be Barcelona and we have a chance to test there before and every team will have a development package there," Theissen said after Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.

"It could change the pecking order, depending on how strong the development packages are.

"We have quite a significant package on the aero side as well as on the chassis side."

BMW Sauber had their best weekend yet in Bahrain, with Poland's Robert Kubica securing his and the team's first pole position before taking their third podium finish in three races.

They had no technical problems and Kubica was not far off the Ferrari duo at the end of the race.

Germany's Nick Heidfeld finished fourth, allowing BMW Sauber to take the overall lead by one point ahead of champions Ferrari. McLaren are a further point back.

"The performance potential of the car is way higher than last year's car and the more you go to the limit, the more difficult it is to fully exploit that potential and fine tune the package so that it works in all conditions," said Theissen. "That is a process we had to learn after the launch and the process is not finished yet.

"Certainly we are one of the three top teams now and then it depends on daily form who is ahead. It's not just about the performance of the car, you have to get your act together when it counts," he said.

McLaren struggled, with Lewis Hamilton losing the championship lead and making almost as many serious mistakes in one weekend as he did in all of last season, but team boss Ron Dennis was confident that Bahrain was just a blip.



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