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Hockenheim Session2: Hard work for BMW drivers
By BMW Sauber F1 Team July 18 2008
The BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers used the second free practice session at the Hockenheimring to carry out a massive preparation programme. Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld both completed the session without encountering any problems and finished eighth and ninth respectively.
In the break between the first and second free practice sessions, the BMW Sauber F1 Team engineers and mechanics did a great job. In the first session, Robert had hit the tyre wall, thus damaging the front suspension on his BMW Sauber F1.08. However, the crew succeeded in repairing the car in time. Consequently, Robert and Nick could both begin their work right at the start of the second session.

The reason both BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers, and indeed, many of their rivals, went out that early was the dark clouds that filled covered the Hockenheim skies throughout the session. As a result, everyone wanted to make as much progress as possible before the circuit was hit by another rain shower. At the end of the day, however, the entire session was held in dry conditions. Robert and Nick both used the opportunity to carry out massive programmes.

Robert completed a total of five stints (two long-runs and three shorter runs) totalling 36 laps. Although he clocked his personal best time of 1:16.363 minutes in the first third of the session, on a relatively green track, the Pole secured an impressive eighth position.

Nick covered an even bigger mileage: during the course of his three long and two short runs, the German lapped the Hockenheimring 40 times. With his personal fastest lap time of 1:16.377 minutes, Nick was just 14 hundredths of a second slower than his team-mate and finished ninth.

In the third practice session, held on Saturday morning from 10:00 to 11:00hrs BST, Robert and Nick will both continue working hard to optimise the set up of their BMW Sauber F1.08 for qualifying and the race.

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