Sauber remains confident of its chances

The Swiss-based team has recently slipped to fifth in the constructors' championship with eight points, four behind Renault. Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa ended today (Friday) 11th and 16th respectively, but had been third and fifth quickest in the opening hour-long session.

"The car seems well suited to the track and we were quite quick for much of the time until other teams began running on low fuel," said Heidfeld. "Our interest wasn't in lap times today, so you shouldn't read too much into our overall performance. We're in good shape for tomorrow."

Heidfeld has also lent his support to the track changes over the opening section of the Nurburgring.

"I like it," he said. "It's been well done and now all the new corners are quite difficult. You need to be very precise. I hope Turn 1 is going to be better at the start, and I'm sure it will be because it's quite wide whereas the old layout was more like a chicane."