Busy day for BMW

The BMW Sauber Formula One Team drivers, Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld, came second and sixth respectively on the first day of practice for the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

Robert Kubica:
BMW Sauber F1.08-03 / BMW P86/8
1st Practice: 2nd, 1:17.809 min / 2nd Practice: 2nd, 1:16.023 min
“We had a very busy afternoon, after losing quite a bit of time in the morning due to the damp track. We ran a very comprehensive programme in the second session, trying a lot of different things on the car’s set-up. The grip level is still very low, which makes the car quite nervous. However, we were also able to do the tyre comparison, so we have a good base to start with for tomorrow.”

Nick Heidfeld:
BMW Sauber F1.08-07 / BMW P86/8
1st Practice: 4th, 1:18.182 min / 2nd Practice: 6th, 1:16.589 min
“In the morning session I did one installation lap on wet tyres. Luckily towards the end of the session the track dried out and I was able to do some laps on dry tyres. It was enough to gather information for the afternoon and make some set-up changes. In the second session there was always a yellow flag somewhere when I was on fresh tyres, but we did a lot more running and had no technical problems.“

Willy Rampf, Technical Director: ”Montreal is a special track where we have a very high load on the brakes, and run a medium level of downforce for the first time in the season. In addition, we use the softest tyre compound, so the challenge today was to find the right set-up taking into consideration all these aspects. As usual on Friday, we mainly worked on race preparation. We had a very productive day without any technical problems, and I think we got to a good level.”