Happy Heidfeld Approves Nurburgring Changes

German Nick Heidfeld is in a confident mood after the first practice session for the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring circuit.

"As usual I'm quite happy with our Friday running," admitted Heidfeld after posting the 11th quickest time in his Sauber. "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.

"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 was an impressive third quickest in the first practice session and is looking for his first points for the Sauber team since the Spanish Grand Prix back at the end of May.

The German driver, who today completed a total of 45 laps, was happy with the changes to the Nurburgring circuit, and claimed the start of the race should be safer thanks to the new run-off areas.

"As for the change to the track, I like it," he added. " It's been well done and now all the new corners are quite difficult. You need to be very precise. I hope Turn One 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. "

Teammate Felipe Massa was also impressive during the first session today, setting the fifth fastest time, but like Heidfeld the young Brazilian dropped down the order in the afternoon. Massa, however, was also happy with his progress after posting the 16th quickest time.

"I flat-spotted my first set of tyres braking too hard for the first corner this morning, but the car was quite well balanced on the second set," said Massa. "Later it understeered too much on the third, but the main aim today was distance running so we didn't try to change the car too much to eliminate that. Overall I'm very happy."