Barcelona (ES). The BMW Sauber F1 Team had a smooth first practice day for the weekend of the Spanish Grand Prix. Drivers Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld did their preparation work according to the planned schedule during the two 90 minute practice sessions on the Circuit de Catalunya, which was the venue for intensive testing last week.

Robert Kubica:
BMW Sauber F1.08-03 / BMW P86/8
1st Practice : 4th, 1:21.568 min / 2nd Practice: 12th, 1:22.788 min
“It was very important for me to do a lot of laps. I did not have the chance to prepare for this GP during last week’s test as I worked with the 2009 tyres then. However, during today’s programme we did a lot of set up changes and evaluated the tyres. We now have to look at the data and will prepare for tomorrow.”

Nick Heidfeld:
BMW Sauber F1.08-04 / BMW P86/8
1st Practice : 9th, 1:22.278 min / 2nd Practice: 13th, 1:23.130 min
“From my point of view this first day of practice was okay. We had no noteworthy problems, we tried and tested everything as planned. Regarding the car’s balance it is not perfect yet, but I think we can improve it for tomorrow.”

Willy Rampf (Technical Director):
"Although we tested here last week, there is still enough work to do, particularly because the weather conditions were perfect today. As always on Fridays, we totally concentrated on race preparation, in particular on the tyre performance on long-runs. The two drivers ran different programmes. We now have a good basis on which we can build up."