Belgian GP: BMW Sauber Friday practice report

Weather: cloudy, some rain in the afternoon, 15-17C Air, 15-17C Track Spa-Francorchamps (BE). The Friday practice sessions for the Belgian Grand Prix were in typical Ardennes weather conditions. For the afternoon session the dark grey sky ...

Weather: cloudy, some rain in the afternoon, 15-17C Air, 15-17C Track

Spa-Francorchamps (BE). The Friday practice sessions for the Belgian Grand Prix were in typical Ardennes weather conditions. For the afternoon session the dark grey sky produced the first rain. Inconsistent track conditions made comparisons and proper analysis for the set- up work difficult.

Robert Kubica:
BMW Sauber F1.08-05 / BMW P86/8
1st Practice: 11th, 1:49.139 min / 2nd Practice: 11th, 1:49.875 min

"The conditions today were variable, especially in the afternoon session. Therefore today it was not only the testing that was difficult, but also evaluating the results of our programme. At the end of the day the conditions were the same for everybody. We shall now analyse the data and prepare for Saturday. When I was doing a practice start at the end of the session the engine stalled."

Nick Heidfeld:
BMW Sauber F1.08-07 / BMW P86/8
1st Practice: 12th, 1:49.185 min / 2nd Practice: 10th, 1:49.725 min

"Generally speaking my first day of practice here was okay. The track's level of grip was, as expected, low and this meant it wasn't too easy to drive the car. We have made some small changes during the course of the day, but, due to the inconsistent weather conditions, it was extremely difficult to make judgements. Because of the weather we couldn't do our usual tyre comparisons either, as we could not run the harder and softer compounds under the same conditions. This makes the analyses tricky but that's the same for everybody."

Willy Rampf (Technical Director):

"Because of the changing track conditions, it's very difficult to draw the right conclusions from the set-up changes we made during the two sessions today. We were not able to complete our programme as planned, and this was specially the case for the tyre comparisons. The set-up decisions for tomorrow will now be based on data analysis and simulation. According to the latest weather forecast it should be dry tomorrow morning, which would give us the chance to complete our work in the third free practice."