Nick Heidfeld gets his season back on-track by outpacing BMW-Sauber team-mate Robert Kubica in qualifying for the first time all year at Silverstone ahead of the British Grand Prix this weekend.

BMW-Sauber may have endured a less than entirely satisfying qualifying session for this weekend's British Grand Prix at Silverstone, but there was at least happier news for one member of the squad, as Nick Heidfeld out-qualified team-mate Robert Kubica for the first time in 2008.

In lining up fifth, the experienced German has not only put disappointing showings in Magny-Cours and Monaco - both occasions on which he failed even to make the Q3 top ten shoot-out - behind him, but the performance also backed up his claims that he is finally getting to the bottom of the tyre-warming woes which have hurt him so badly since the beginning of the campaign.

"I'm quite happy with fifth," the under-fire 31-year-old stated, "because it just continues a positive trend which began in qualifying in Magny-Cours, and confirms all our efforts and work have paid off. I can now manage again to heat up the tyres properly and get them to work, but we shall continue to work on this subject.

"In Q2 Robert and I were just separated by two hundredths of a second. Generally my car was a lot better today than on Friday. However, on my last lap in Q3 it felt a little bit strange, so we have to find out what this was. I think we shall have an exciting race tomorrow, [with] a high chance of rain."

Kubica was understandably rather more nonplussed with tenth, after a brief off-piste moment in Q3 followed by a technical problem stymied his chances and brought a premature end to his efforts - leaving the former world championship-leading Pole a lowly tenth on the grid.

"It was a difficult qualifying in the end," the 23-year-old mused afterwards, "but finally we were on the right pace. Q1 was good and Q2 was even better, as the first time on option tyres was very good. I backed off in the last sector to just bring the car home, and it was still enough to be two or three tenths off the McLaren time.

"In Q3 I went through the first sector without any problems, but then I felt the same problem at the rear that I had felt on Friday. Now we have to analyse everything and see what is going on."

The Munich and Hinwil-based outfit's motorsport president Dr Mario Theissen and technical director Willy Rampf were similarly disappointed with what had happened to Kubica, as BMW runs the risk of seeing its Silverstone weekend degenerate into a Magny-Cours mark two.

"Up to the top ten qualifying session everything went according to plan," Theissen related, "but then Robert aborted his lap in Q3 because he realised he had a technical problem with the car.

"Unfortunately time was too short to analyse the problem during the session and get him back out on the track. It is a shame because both drivers were strong, which is proved by Nick's fifth place. It was a very good performance by him."

"Both our drivers were well on their way in the first two qualifying sessions," added Rampf, "and only needed a single lap to easily advance into the final stage of qualifying. However, in Q3 Robert couldn't complete his fast lap, and over the radio told us about a technical problem with the car.

"Nick's performance was impressive and put him fifth-fastest. We are all very happy about that. The weather prediction for tomorrow is mixed. We are prepared for anything that might come."