Successful start to the Imola weekend

In the first free practice session for the San Marino Grand Prix, held under blue skies and at an agreeable 23 degrees Celsius, BMW Sauber F1 Team test driver Robert Kubica was the one who carried out all the preparation work for the team and secured third position on the time sheets.

While the BMW Sauber F1 Team's Grand Prix regulars, Nick Heidfeld and Jacques Villeneuve, made do with completing an installation lap each, their Polish team mate covered a total of 24 laps while focusing on tyre evaluation tests and set-up work on the BMW Sauber F1.06, thus being the second busiest mand of the session.

In each of his three stints, Robert succeeded in improving his personal fastest lap time several times and for the major part of the session, he held the lead. At the end of the session, he set a personal fastest time of 1:25:942 minutes to finish third behind Ferrari's Michael Schumacher (1:24:751) and Williams test driver Alexander Wurz (1:25:132).

In the second free practice session form 14:00hrs the BMW Sauber F1 Team will continue its preparations for the remainder of the weekend.