Weather conditions: Sunny and dry Temperatures: air 5-14°C, track 5-17°C Fastest lap overall:
1:20.609 min Gary Paffett, McLaren-Mercedes, Michelin Number of cars participating: 3 Driver on duty: Nick
Heidfeld Chassis Sauber: C24B Engine: BMW P86 V8 Test kilometres today: 129 km Number of laps
today: 28 Fastest lap: 1:21.634 min (lap 16) Test programme: First test of Sauber C24B with BMW P86 V8
engine. Remarks: In the morning, the car ran without any problems. In the afternoon, the engineers stopped the programme
early. What comes next: Continuation of engine and systems testing
Nick Heidfeld: "After an almost
three-month break I could hardly wait for the first test. The chassis and engine ran without any problems in the morning. All the
systems were working perfectly. Of course you can tell the difference in performance compared to the V10. That's something you just
have to get used to. A positive surprise is that the engine vibrates a lot less than I had expected. In the afternoon we had to
break off work early when the engineers spotted a problem in the data and told me to switch off the engine. Tomorrow we will resume
our programme as planned."
