For more than 80 minutes of the 90-minute session, Robert and Nick both focused on set-up work and tyre evaluations, with no effort to set fast lap times. After all, the first session of a race weekend is vital when it comes to finding the basic set-up for the remainder of the weekend.

Both BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers completed four stints, with Nick covering a slightly higher mileage (26 laps) than his Polish Team-mate (21 laps). The German improved stint by stint and in the end he set a personal fastest lap time of 1: 23.170 minutes, thus finishing 12th.

Robert, however, was on a different strategy. For a long time it looked as if his 1:23.001-minute lap, set on the third timed lap of his first stint, should be his personal fastest lap time, but in the closing stages of the session he demonstrated the competitiveness of the BMW Sauber F1.07. On the first timed lap of his final five-lap stint, he set a 1:22.495-minute lap to pass Ferrari's Felipe Massa for fourth position and two laps later he improved again with a time of 1:22.446 minutes, just 0.155 seconds behind third placed Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari).

The fastest lap of the session (1:21.880 minutes) was set by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, 0.388 seconds ahead of his team-mate, Fernando Alonso.

In the second free practice session (14.00 to 15.30hrs local time, 13.00 to 14.30hrs BST), the BMW Sauber F1 Team will continue its preparations for the remainder of the weekend.