Kubica finishes 3rd in the second Friday session

By BMW Sauber F1 Team
April 13 2007

In the second free practice session for the Bahrain GP, the BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers successfully continued their preparations for the remainder of the weekend. Robert Kubica impressed by finishing third. Nick Heidfeld also delivered in fine style and secured seventh position.

In the second free practice at the "Bahrain International Circuit", Robert and Nick were among the busiest drivers of the entire field as they continued their set-up work and tyre evaluations. In the afternoon session, the Munich and Hinwil squad's duo worked on different strategies to find out which tyre compound will be the better solution for which race stint.

Robert, who completed a total of five stints comprising 37 lap, contested his final 10-lap stint on the softer of the two tyre compounds in the closing stages of the session and set his personal fastest time of 1:33.732 minutes on the first flying lap of this stint. At the end of the day, he finished third overall, just 0.205 seconds behind the quickest driver, Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen (1:33.527 minutes).

Nick, however, set his personal fastest lap of 1:34.076 minutes far earlier in the session, with more than 30 minutes remaining. In the dying stages of the session, when most of the drivers went out on a light fuel load and the softer compound to set a fast lap, Nick opted not to make an effort to secure a top position on the time sheets. Unlike his rivals, the German, who completed five stints totalling 34 laps, used the improved track conditions to complete an 11-lap long-run on the harder compound.

In the third free practice session, held on Saturday morning from 11:00 to 12:00hrs local time (09:00 to 10:00hrs BST), the BMW Sauber F1 Team will complete its preparations for the qualifying session and the race.