end of the year, Kubica won a street race in Sardinia and came fifth in races held in Macau and Korea. He ended his second season in the Formula 3 Euro Series, spent with the factory Mercedes team, in 7th position. In November 2004, he scored pole position in the Macau F3 Grand Prix, where he broke the lap record, but finished second in the race. In 2005 he won the World Series by Renault championship with the Epsilon Euskadi team, earning Formula One tests with Renault. Formula One career BMW Sauber 2006 season: first Polish F1 driver In , Kubica became the official reserve driver for the BMW Sauber Formula One team. His results in both Friday testing and private test sessions, along with the words of BMW Sauber team principal Mario Theissen, led to speculation that he would become Poland's first ever Formula One racing driver in . In August 2006, Kubica's teammate, Jacques Villeneuve, complained about headaches after his accident during the ; he was deemed unfit to race by the team, against his own belief, and Kubica was chosen by the team management to replace him at the . Kubica qualified ninth, beating his more experienced teammate Nick Heidfeld. In the race, he finished in seventh place, but was disqualified after the race for having an underweight car. Villeneuve decided to leave the BMW Sauber team soon after the race, and Kubica's position in the team for the remainder of the season was confirmed by BMW. Kubica had a disappointing race at the , finishing in 12th place after a mistake in tyre choice. Heidfeld, who was delayed in a first-corner accident, placed behind Kubica. In his third race, the , Kubica finished in third position, and became the first Polish driver to appear on a Formula One podium, as well as the first Polish driver to lead a Grand Prix. He was the first driver since Alexander Wurz in to finish on the podium within his first three Formula One starts. In China, he finished 13th, again after a mistake in tyre choice. After going off track at the first turn of the race, he moved from 17th position to fifth, before pitting. He was the first to change from intermediate tyres to dry tyres after the wet track started to dry. This decision was made too early: a very slow next lap in extremely