BMW Sauber F1 Team - Bahrain GP - Practice
Weather: dry, 31-33°C Air, 36-42°C Track
Sakhir (BHR). A smooth start for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. The
three BMW Sauber F1.06s of Nick Heidfeld, Jacques Villeneuve
and Robert Kubica performed flawlessly on the first practice
day for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Robert set the fastest time
of the trio, since he had the advantage of driving many laps
in his role as the third driver.
Robert Kubica:
1st Practice: 1st , 1:32.170 min / 2nd Practice: 10th, 1:33.244
min
I think we had a good day, and I managed to do a lot of tyre
testing. I picked up a puncture at one stage, which interrupted
progress, but we still collected a lot of useful information.
My impression is that the circuit is easier to drive with
the V8 engine, because the two quickest corners are flat out
now.
Nick Heidfeld:
1st Practice: no time / 2nd Practice: 14th, 1:33.848 min
It’s great to get going properly at last, and I really
enjoyed the second practice session. The morning was kind
of boring, because I just did one installation lap. On a technical
level, the car worked well, and we were able to collect a
lot of data from the third car for analysis this afternoon.
Jacques Villeneuve:
1st Practice: no time / 2nd Practice: 25th, 1:36.264 min
I only did a few laps today just to get a feeling for the
car. For most of the time I was out there, there was a yellow
flag. We just started working on the set-up and we have a
fair bit left to do tomorrow.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
We are happy that the 2006 season finally started. My compliments
to the whole team who worked the last eight months in preparation
for this event. The first impression is positive. Apart from
the puncture on Robert’s car, everything went to schedule.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director Chassis):
We were able to complete our programme virtually without any
technical problems, which was a good start. Nick and Jacques
both just did a baseline run each in order to gather some
data for tomorrow. Robert’s task was to evaluate the
two different tyre options, and I have to say that he did
a very good job and was able to provide us with a lot of valuable
data as a basis for the remainder of the weekend.
|
