Hard work for BMW drivers, as they test new wing


By BMW Sauber F1 Team
May 11 2007

In the second free practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica successfully continued their preparations for the remainder of the weekend. .

Nick and Robert were extremely busy and completed 40 and 43 laps respectively, with Nick contesting five and Robert six stints. Just as it had been the case in session one, the BMW Sauber F1 Team pairing again opted for focusing on the setup work and the tyre evaluations instead of trying to impress with fast lap times.

At the end of the day, Nick proved to be the slightly faster of the pairing. He set his fastest time (1:22.543 minutes) on the first timed lap of stint four - a twelve-lap long-run - and held temporary fifth position, with this time. In the end, he finished eighth.

"We're quite happy with what we have achieved," said the German. "Despite having tested for four days at the 'Circuit de Catalunya', last week, this was my first chance of comparing the harder and the softer tyre compounds as two of the four days of testing were held in wet conditions. At the same time, we succeeded in making progress regarding the car's handling."

His team-mate Robert (1:22.710 minutes) was slightly slower than the German but also set his fastest time on the first timed lap of twelve-lap long run. Hence, one will have to wait until the qualifying session is over to be able to assess the BMW Sauber F1.07's competitiveness in Spain.

Even more so as it was a slightly weird second free practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix. All the three top teams, Ferrari, McLaren and the BMW Sauber F1 Team, did without setting fast laps in the closing stages of the session and opted for completing long runs, instead. The fastest lap of the session was set by McLaren's Fernando Alonso (1.21.397 minutes).

In the third free practice session (Saturday, 11.00hrs local time, 10.00hrs BST), the BMW Sauber F1 Team will complete its preparations for qualifying (Saturday, 14.00hrs local time, 13.00hrs BST) and race (Sunday, 14.00hrs local time).

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