By BMW Sauber F1 Team
February 24 2008

On the final of testing, Christian Klien was on duty, driving the F1.08 for the first time. Next to Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica, the official test and reserve driver of the BMW Sauber F1 Team covered 32 laps of the "Circuit de la Comunitat" in Valencia.

With temperatures reaching 17°Cund overcast skies in the morning, Christian took to the track in the morning. In the afternoon Nick and Robert commenced their test drives in the afternoon, with the sun coming out from time to time.

Nick did 59 laps of the Spanish track, setting a personal best time of 1:12.258 minutes. Robert completed 70 laps. He recorded a 1:12.293-minute time. Christian, who had his first opportunity to drive the F1.08, was running on wet tyres, posting a fastest lap time of 1:23.857 minutes.

Christian used his first time in the cockpit of the F1.08, familiarizing himself with the car and working procedures of the team. In the morning he completed 32 laps in damp conditions, he also did several practice starts and pitstops.

Both Robert and Nick continued to work on the set-up of the car. Covering 798 kms (197 laps) and 870 kms (217 laps) in total they further improved the set-up of the new F1.08 car.

BMW Sauber F1 Team Technical Director Willy Rampf said: "Apart from Thursday afternoon weather conditions were far from perfect during the three days. This made work difficult for the engineers. Nevertheless, this was an important and positive test for the team. We were able to complete a race simulation with both cars including pitstops without any problems. This underlines the high level of reliability of the new car. In addition we tested some newly developed parts. We will do more set-up work with the F1.08 next week during the final pre-season test in Barcelona."

BMW Sauber F1 Team will test again in Barcelona from 25th to 27th February.