Competitive showing in 3rd session for BMW

The third free practice took place in difficult conditions, with the wind blowing a lot of sand on the track. The BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers, however, weren't ready to let the conditions hamper their efforts and completed the preparations for the remainder of the weekend.

The sand on the track caused a situation Formula One supporters are normally accustomed to witnessing in wet conditions. Early in the session, nobody wanted to go out and subsequently the grip level improved lap by lap.

Both Jacques Villeneuve and Nick Heidfeld set their personal fastest lap times in their third and final stints. Jacques, who covered a total of 14 laps, went out for his final run with just five more minutes to go and set a personal fastest lap time of 1:32:913, thus securing sixth position.

Nick (11 laps) completed his final stint five minutes earlier. His personal fastest lap (1:34:094) meant provisional seventh position, but a lot of drivers succeeded in improving their lap times in the very last moments of the session. Therefore, Nick had to settle for 13th place.

"The sand was a problem but the wind was worse," said Nick Heidfeld. "It was very changeable; therefore, you didn't exactly know what your car would do when entering a corner. Jacques finished sixth, that's a promising result. But only qualifying will give us a clear picture regarding our competitiveness."