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Felipe Massa and
Kimi Raikkonen ended
the Friday afternoon ninety
minute free practice
session in Bahrain in sixteenth
and eighteenth
places respectively.
The Finn completed a
total of 47 laps
over today’s three
hours of track time,
while the Brazilian
turned in 51.
After removing the
KERS system from the
two F60 in China
last week, today,
the Scuderia Ferrari
Marlboro drivers did
a back to back
comparison, with
Felipe’s car using
the power boosting
system, while Kimi
ran without it. The
data will now be
analysed to make a
decision regarding
the system for the
rest of this
weekend. However,
whatever the
decision, it’s clear
that between Sunday
night in Shanghai
and Friday morning
in Bahrain, there
can be no miracle
cures and so, while
happy the cars ran
reliably, neither
Ferrari driver is
particularly
impressed with his
own turn of speed at
the moment. But
there’s no sense of
giving up in the
team garage, with
everyone getting on
with their jobs as
usual, making the
best of a difficult
time.
At
the top of the time
sheet today, we find
Nico Rosberg in the
Williams Toyota,
while second is the
Renault of Fernando
Alonso, followed by
Jarno Trulli in the
Toyota. Fourth and
fifth places go to
the drivers who came
first and second in
China, Sebastian
Vettel and Mark
Webber in their Red
Bull-Renault, while
series leader,
Jenson Button,
rounds off the top
six.
The weather has been
the main talking
point in Bahrain today, which
makes a pleasant
change from sport
politics. While the
first three races
have been
characterised by
rain, the topic in
the desert is the
heat, with the air
temperature in the
high thirties and
the track hitting
fifty. It’s the
hottest conditions
seen all year and it
is partly due to the
fact this race is
later than usual on
the calendar – the
first time Formula 1
came here it was on
04/04/04 and the
forecast for
tomorrow is hotter
still.
Scuderia Ferrari was
back on track today at a circuit where
it carried out two winter test sessions
in preparation for the season. In
conditions very different to those
experienced last February, the team
worked solely on race preparation, both
in terms of assessing the performance of
the Bridgestone tyres and in a
comparison of two different
configurations on the F60. “Our car is
unchanged from the way it was in
Shanghai and therefore, we couldn’t
expect a different picture,” commented
Stefano Domenicali. “Our aim is to bring
home some points: we have to be
realistic and at the moment, we cannot
aspire to more than that. We have to
tackle this difficult phase with a cool
head, working on all fronts to try and
get back to being competitive as soon as
possible.”
Felipe Massa:
“This was definitely not a good day. We
worked a lot towards the race, but we
have to try and improve the handling of
the car to move up the order for
tomorrow and Sunday. The harder tyre is
very difficult to use, while the soft
one seems to be the best, not just in
terms of outright performance but also
over a distance. The KERS helps: without
it, I would have certainly been slower.
I made a mistake at the final turn on my
last set of soft tyres, which cost me at
least three tenths. We must be patient
at the moment and try to do the best
possible in these conditions.”
Kimi Raikkonen:
“Even if we don’t know what fuel loads
the other teams had, it’s clear that we
are not as quick as we would like, but
we have to try and make the best of this
situation. Anyway, we knew that the
picture for this race would be no
different to what we’ve seen in previous
ones. Today we opted to run in two
different configurations and did a lot
of work on finding the best set-up for
the car. We collected a lot of data
which we will now analyse, to be as well
prepared as possible for the race. We
can expect a difficult weekend, but we
were never in any doubt about that.”
Chris Dyer:
“Today, we had a very full work
programme, based mainly on race
preparation and on a comparison between
the two cars that ran in different
configurations: Felipe’s was fitted with
KERS, while Kimi’s was not. We acquired
a load of data which we will now
evaluate very carefully before taking
any definite decisions regarding the
rest of the weekend. Today’s conditions
were very difficult, with high
temperatures. We struggled a lot with
the harder tyres, while the softer ones
worked better. We had no reliability
problems, which is the most positive
aspect of the day. As for performance,
we have a lot of work to do to try and
improve it, while well aware of our
current potential.”
Friday
Details:
First session
F. Massa: 8th 1.34.589 17 laps 275 chassis
K. Raikkonen: 10th 1.34.827 19 laps 276
chassis
Second session
F. Massa: 16th 1.34.564 34 laps 275 chassis
K. Raikkonen: 18th 1.34.670 28 laps 276
chassis
Weather
First session: air 33/35 °C, track 42/46 °C,
sunny
Second session: air 38 °C, track 51/49 °C,
sunny
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