Trouble-free day for BMW in intense heat

Despite the intense heat on the undulating and challenging Istanbul Park track, both of the day’s practice sessions were trouble-free for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. Because of a lose drain cover on the track, the second session was shortened by 28 minutes, but the team still managed to do the majority of its work. In the two sessions Robert Kubica was 11th and tenth quickest and Nick Heidfeld ninth and 13th.

Robert Kubica: BMW Sauber F1.07-03/BMW P86/7 1st Practice: 11th, 1.29.710 min
2nd Practice: 10th, 1.29.368 min “This morning the track was really slippery and many drivers went off, so the conditions were very difficult. In the afternoon the conditions were better, we mainly concentrated on the long runs to compare the tyres and we have done some good work. Unfortunately the session was stopped for quite a while, so we had to drop some set- up work, but we have some time to do that tomorrow. I would have liked to do one more run, but it was the same for everyone.”

Nick Heidfeld: BMW Sauber F1.07-08/BMW P86/7 (T-car F1.06-04) 1st Practice: 9th, 1.29.641 min
2nd Practice: 13th, 1.29.792 min “I enjoy driving here and I like the track, although in the morning in particular it was very slippery. Despite losing almost half an hour of track time, we completed all the important jobs and compared the two tyre specifications. The set-up is not ideal yet and, in my view, my long runs at the end were not perfect either.”

Willy Rampf, Technical Director “We can be satisfied up to now. We lost valuable track time for the set-up work, but that is the same for every team, so we concentrated on long runs. Now we have to look into the data, but we are happy with the lap times set over the longer runs. Tomorrow our focus will be preparation for qualifying. For Sunday we can expect similar temperatures to today, so we have a hot race ahead of us.”