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Bahrain. Satuday Factbox
By BMW Sauber F1 Team April 5 2008
Due to a weird incident, the qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix had to be temporarily red-flagged. Further facts... .

- Overeager fire fighters: With less than five minutes to go in the first knockout zone of qualifying, nearly anybody was taken by surprise when seeing the marshals wave the red flags. Why had the session been red-flagged, thus forcing all the drivers to return to the pits? The weird reason: Following a harmless accident of Super Aguri's Takuma Sato, a slightly overeager fire fighter went out on the track, with his fire engine. A few minutes later, the battle for fractions of a second could be continued.

- Impressive mileage: During the course of the three free practice sessions at the "Bahrain International Circuit", the BMW Sauber F1 Team completed a remarkable number of laps. Altogether, Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica lapped the circuit 132 times, representing a total mileage of more than 714 kilometres.

- New regulation implemented: Following the Malaysia qualifying incident, when slower drivers hampered Nick who was on the way to completing a fast lap, a new qualifying regulation was implemented with immediate effect. From the Bahrain Grand Prix, a driver mustn't lap the respective circuit more than about 20 percent slower than it is lapped on a really fast lap. At Bahrain, the allowed maximum time was 1.39 minutes.

- No champagne shower: Should one of the BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers secure the team's and his own maiden GP win, he will have to do without an old Formula One tradition. When celebrating this success on the podium, he will have to abstain from spraying champagne. In the Islamic countries, alcohol is banned. Consequently, the champagne usually used for the presentation ceremony is replaced by rose water, a mix of pomegranate and rose-bloom juice.

Friday's factbox:

The BMW Sauber F1 Team has successfully completed the first two practice sessions in Bahrain. Sand on the desert emirate's GP circuit made for an extra challenge. Further facts...

- Heat, the third chapter: The third Grand Prix, and third hot race of the 2008 season. As was the case in Australia and Malaysia, Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica will have to cope with hot conditions in the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend. As a foretaste of things to come, the temperatures rose to more than 30° C as early as the first practice session on Friday morning.

- 98 laps completed in the practice sessions: For the BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers, working on the set-up of their cars represented the top priority during the Friday practice sessions in Bahrain. During the course of the day, Nick completed 53 laps, with his team-mate Robert lapping the "Bahrain International Circuit" 45 times. Together, the pairing covered a total mileage of 530.376 kilometres in the Friday sessions.

- Drivers meet fans: On Sunday, from 10:20 to 10:50hrs local time, about three hours prior to the start of the race, Nick and Robert will sign autographs for the many motor-racing fans at the track. The event will be held on a dhow, the ancient sea-faring vessel used for centuries by the Bahraini pearl divers.

- Sand on the track: Shifting winds blowing at speeds of more than two metres per second make the drivers' lives difficult in Bahrain. Again and again, the wind blows sand on to the 'Bahrain International Circuit', located at Sakhir. And this sand can be sucked into the cars' cooling ducts and air inlets, possibly resulting in technical problems.

 

***Remeber that you can discuss about this and other BMW Sauber news at our forum, at http://www.f1network.net/boards/list/s491.htm?936 

 

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