First and second in the morning, first and fourth in the afternoon and a total of 99 laps for the two F2007; that is the numerical summing up of the first day of practice for Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix for Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's Finnish driver was quickest all day, with the Brazilian ending up fourth.

Lap times were always expected to be closer between the teams this year, because of the lack of a tyre war and also because of an imposed 19,000 rpm limit on engine speeds. Today, this definitely seemed to be the case as the top six in this afternoon's session all finished within 0.446 seconds of one another, from 1.33.527 for Raikkonen to the Williams-Toyota of Alex Wurz, sixth in 1.33.973. No real surprises for the top six as second quickest was the McLaren-Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, followed by the BMW-Sauber of Robert Kubica. Behind Massa came the winner of the Malaysian Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso in the other McLaren-Mercedes. As usual, track conditions were difficult today, as the surface is dirty, with sand being blown across it by a wind that also affects car handling.

As usual, the Sakhir circuit sees more activity in the paddock than in Malaysia a few days ago, as although it is very hot here, humidity levels are much lower, the weather is more pleasant and so drivers and team personnel are happy to stay outside. However, last night, a mini-tornado ripped through the paddock, uprooting a few tents and causing some damage and for tomorrow, thunderstorms are forecast for the afternoon, hopefully not during qualifying.

Kimi Raikkonen: "It is too early to say where everyone stands, but the performance levels of the top teams seems to be very close. Today, it was difficult to find the right balance of the car, partly because at this track, the wind makes the car difficult to drive. Towards the end of the second session, we found some good settings and now we must keep on that track to find a bit more speed to keep ahead of the rest. But all in all we can be satisfied with the work we have done today."
 

Felipe Massa: "I am pretty happy with the handling of the car, which has allowed me to be very consistent in terms of performance over long runs. We have a good point from which to work over the rest of the weekend. In particular, we have to work on improving our performance on the first lap on new tyres. It all looks very close, but we have everything we need to do well in qualifying and in the race."

Luca Baldisserri: "Today, we struggled a bit more than on the two previous Grand Prix Fridays, in terms of finding a good balance on our cars. We tried various settings and then, in the second part of the second session, we came up with a good compromise. Performance and consistency over a long run are reasonably satisfactory on both the Bridgestone tyre types that we have at this track.

"It is very close as can be seen from the times. So it does not need much to tip the balance one way or another and so all elements of the package have to be working at their best if we want to aspire to the best result."

Free practice - First session: K. Raikkonen 1st 1.33.162 21 laps, chassis 261; F. Massa 2nd 1.33.679 17 laps, chassis 260; Weather: air temperature 30/32°C, track temperature 36/42°C, sunny.

Free Practice - Second session: K. Raikkonen 1st 1.33.527 33 laps, chassis 261; F. Massa 4th 1.33.772 28 laps, chassis 260; Weather: air temperature 32°C, track temperature 43°C, sunny.