8 September 2006
– The BMW Sauber F1 Team finished the first day of practice for the Italian Grand Prix at
Monza with its test and reserve driver, Sebastian Vettel, at the top of the time sheets in both sessions. Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld both had a trouble free day completing the work scheduled for them.?
"In the first free practice I did just a couple of laps to check the heat in the tyres and that everything was okay," said Kubica.?"This afternoon I continued with the same set of tyres, and we are quite positive the tyres are working well, at least for me. We have some data from the third car, but it is good I have done some driving so feel safe with our choice. Everyone is trying to keep a low profile so we will see tomorrow where we end up."?
Nick Heidfeld commented, "So far so good. We didn't have any problems and the tyres we got for Monza from Michelin worked. Our test here was good. The low downforce aero package works. Between the test and the race weekend we made some modifications and we haven't had any surprises yet."
Team boss Mario Theissen added, "It was a good Friday for the team. Sebastian drove the car under different technical conditions and collected a lot of data for the race set up. This was the second Friday on duty for Sebastian, and it was a solid performance demonstrating that even at his young age he is capable of handling this job. Nick and Robert were both satisfied, and we had no technical problems on any of the three cars."