By BMW Sauber F1 Team
September 8 2006

In the first free practice session for the Italian GP, held in brilliant summer conditions (30° C), the BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica proved to be the dominating force, with Sebastian setting the fastest lap time and Robert finishing runner-up. The first free practice session of the Italian Grand Prix weekend, held at Monza, turned out to be a truly successful one for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. As usual, the team's test driver, Sebastian, carried out the major part of the set-up work and the tyre evaluations conducted in session one. At the end of the day, the young German completed 22 laps and four stints respectively, thus being the second busiest driver of the session behind Scuderia Rosso's Neel Jani who completed 24 laps. In his third stint, Sebastian took the lead by setting a 1:23.808-minute lap and with six more minutes to go he came out for another short stint to even increase his lead by crossing the line in 1:23.263 minutes - 0.605 seconds faster than third placed Alex Wurz (Williams).

Robert went out for his first stint with just four more minutes to go, set a competitive lap time right away (1:24.197 minutes) and on his second timed lap, he crossed the line in 1:23.745 minutes to secure second position on the time sheets. Nick Heidfeld however, the team's German GP driver, made do with completing just an installation lap.

In the second free practice session, starting at 14.00hrs local time (13.00hrs BST), the BMW Sauber F1 Team is going to continue its preparations for the remainder of the weekend.