Good start to Hungarian weekend for BMW

It was a good start to the weekend for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. Both 90 minute sessions on the twisty Hungaroring, near Budapest, were troublefree. In the morning Robert Kubica was fastest overall, while Nick Heidfeld was sixth. As predicted for the afternoon, the sky became overcast and even produced a few drops of rain. In the afternoon session Heidfeld was the faster of the two drivers, finishing fifth with Kubica tenth.

Nick Heidfeld: BMW Sauber F1.07-05/BMW P86/7 1st Practice: 6th, 1.22.891 min
2nd Practice: 5th, 1.21.517 min “For us the sessions went well. We had no technical problems and got all the work done. But it is very difficult to get the tyres to work properly. Graining is an issue. As far as I could see, other drivers have the same problem. I think the order between the top teams remains the same here. Compared to last year’s F1.06, this year’s car obviously performs better on high downforce circuits like Monaco or Budapest.”

Robert Kubica: BMW Sauber F1.07-03/BMW P86/7 1st Practice: 1st, 1.22.390 min
2nd Practice: 10th, 1.21.906 min “The day was quite good. We did a lot of laps to see how the tyres performed. Here in Hungary we use the softest tyre compound of the season, just like in Monaco. Therefore, we completed a lot of long runs to see how the soft tyres behave over the distance. We now have a lot of data that we are going to analyse for tomorrow. So far so good. The track conditions were not ideal today. Off the line it is quite dirty, but this situation is the same for everybody.”

Willy Rampf, Technical Director: “We completed our programme without any problems. Only the short shower in the afternoon interrupted this slightly. Anyway, we collected enough data, which we are going to analyse now. We concentrated on race preparation today. The decision for the tyre choice requires more data. There is still a small possibility of rain for Saturday and Sunday, so we have to take this into account and prepare accordingly.”