Chinese GP: Sauber Friday report

The two 90 minute free practice sessions for the Chinese Grand Prix went smoothly for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa completed their programme as planned in chilly Shanghai.

Pedro de la Rosa:
C29.04 / Ferrari 056
1st Practice: 13th / 1:38.421 min (19 laps) / 2nd Practice: 13 / 1:37.421 min (32 laps)

"We treated the day very much as a test day. We tried different set-up options and in the end the car was a bit better. At the end of the second session we compared the option and the prime tyres. The lap time with the softer compound, the option, actually wasn't good enough compared to the harder prime compound. We have to look into that now. All in all it was a trouble free and productive first day."

Kamui Kobayashi:
C29.01 / Ferrari 056
1st Practice: 12th / 1:38.375 min (21 laps) / 2nd Practice: 14 / 1:37.431 min (33 laps)

"The track improved a lot during the day. It was very dusty in the morning and then the usual conditions came back. We had no problems or any issues, and the programme was fine. The balance of the car is okay, but still we have to find a better pace. It is a nice and challenging track and I expect us to see some good overtaking on Sunday in the race."

James Key, Technical Director:

"It was good to see the team operating for the first time with the cars and drivers on the track. I think fundamentally we made some progress today. We tried a couple of small new directions on the car, some of which gave us data for the future, some of which we are using now. So I think we found some time today with the changes we made. We've got a little bit of work left with the rear wing for the remainder of the weekend. And also some work to do with the tyres in order to fully understand how to get the most out of them, because clearly the warm up was difficult today for both tyres. We will work through the data tonight and see what we need to do for tomorrow."

-source: sauber