Positive debut in the Nurburgring for the BMW pairing

By BMW Sauber F1
July 10 2009

Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld began their preparation programme for the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring today. Nick was the faster of the two BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers. At his home circuit in the Eifel mountains, the 32-year-old finished 11th, setting a personal best time of 1:34.211 minutes. Robert was 0.473 seconds slower than his team-mate and finished 14th.

On Friday morning the drivers once again experienced the Nürburgring's unpredictable weather conditions. The session got underway with ambient temperatures of only 11 degrees Celsius, with the track temperature little better at 20 degrees Celsius. Consequently, it was difficult for the drivers to heat the tyres up to their ideal working temperature.

Nonetheless, the BMW Sauber F1 Team pairing made a positive first impression at the 5.148-kilometre track while testing several new components on the BMW Sauber F1.09s. Among other things, the double diffuser that debuted in Turkey was optimised by the team during the past three-week break.

Robert posted his personal best time during his first outing and completed a total of 23 laps. Nick covered 25 laps, improving his time in the closing stages of the session. Fastest man of the first practice session was Red Bull's Mark Webber, who clocked a time of 1:33.082 minutes.

Nick is confident that the changes to the car will have a positive effect on the performance of the team this weekend. "Whenever we have brought an update to the car we have moved forward, and we were able to score points in Barcelona and Istanbul," he said. "That's why I have high hopes this weekend that we will be able to score points again."

At 14:00hrs the BMW Sauber F1 Team will continue its preparations for the remainder of the weekend in the second free practice session. Set-up work and tyre evaluations will once again be the main focus.