By BMW Sauber
May 21 2009

In the first free practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix, the BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers, Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld, once again focused solely on their race preparations, finishing 16th and 17th respectively.

It was a difficult start to the opening session for the Munich and Hinwil based squad. In the first half of the session, which was held in brilliant conditions, neither Robert nor Nick set a single timed lap, with Nick complaining of brake problems.

In the second half the team succeeded in solving the problem and the BMW Sauber F1 Team pairing could begin their preparations for the race on Sunday, with Robert once again proving to be the slightly quicker.

The Pole completed a total of 20 laps and on his 13th, he set his personal fastest lap time of 1:19.560 minutes to finish 16th on the time sheets. His German team-mate was somewhat busier, completing 23 laps, and with his personal best time of 1:19.579 minutes clocked on his 16th lap, he ended the session 17th.

Neither driver was happy with the handling and set-up of their BMW Sauber F1.09 single-seaters but in the second session, starting at 14:00hrs CEST (13:00hrs BST), the team will work hard on improving the competitiveness of the cars.

The fastest lap time of the session (1:17.189 minutes) was set by Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello.