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After the
“phoney war” that is winter testing, the real battle for
the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship got underway on
Friday, with three hours of free practice at the revised
and lengthened Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain. Felipe Massa
ended the day seventh fastest, while his new Scuderia
Ferrari team-mate, Fernando Alonso was ninth. In the
morning session, they were fourth and second
respectively. The Brazilian completed a total of 49
laps, while the Spaniard did 43.
For the past few
years, it was always claimed that Friday times were hard to
interpret because drivers could be on different fuel loads,
but the differences in weight were not so great. However,
this year, the fuel tanks are much bigger to deal with the
ban on race refuelling, so this uncertainty is now greater
than ever, as there can be a much bigger difference in fuel
loads. But the Ferrari duo concentrated on their work, which
yesterday was aimed squarely at Sunday’s race, rather than
searching for quick lap times. That job will be tackled in
the final hour of free practice this morning morning, as the
cars are prepared for the low fuel runs which will
characterise the all-important afternoon Qualifying session.
Both Alonso and Massa were pleased with what they achieved,
the only hitch being a loss of air from one of the
Spaniard’s tyres, which interrupted a tyre assessment long
run.
Nico Rosberg was
fastest for Mercedes, ahead of the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton
and the returning Michael Schumacher in the second Mercedes.
These three were the only ones to get under the 1m 56 second
mark, on the extended Sakhir circuit. In his first outing
for McLaren, reigning champion Jenson Button was fourth,
with Sebastian Vettel fifth for Red Bull and Nico Hulkenberg
sixth on his Formula 1 debut with Williams.
Twenty three
cars, three more than last year, took part in today’s
sessions. It should have been twenty four, but Karun
Chandok’s Hispania car was not ready, although his team-mate
made it out on track by the end of the morning, to bring a
famous name back to the sport, as Bruno Senna is the nephew
of the late Ayrton. There are no less than five rookie
drivers on the grid, the two drivers already mentioned, plus
Lucas di Grassi, Vitaly Petrov and Nico Hulkenberg.
After winter
testing featured rain and below average temperatures, the
first round of the World Championship, which got underway
today at Sakhir, took place in hot and sunny conditions.
Therefore, the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro work programme over
the three hours of free practice, focussed almost entirely
on assessing the behaviour of the F10 and the two types of
tyre brought by Bridgestone, in conditions very different to
those experienced during the fifteen days of testing. “We
had set ourselves an agenda based on preparation for
Sunday’s race and we are pleased with what we have seen so
far,” commented Stefano Domenicali. “Even more so than in
the past, it is difficult to get an idea of the pecking
order on Friday, because the fuel levels of the cars during
these three hours of running can vary quite considerably.
Now, we must try and prepare as well as possible for
tomorrow’s qualifying, which will be difficult and closely
contested for a variety of reasons, without losing sight of
the fact that the points are only handed out on Sunday
afternoon.”
Fernando
Alonso: “A slightly different Friday to usual for me, as
it was the first one with my new team. We concentrated
mainly on comparing the two types of tyre, so as to be as
well prepared as possible for the race on Sunday, trying to
get a car that performs consistently over a long run.
Obviously, with such high temperatures, tyre degradation was
more rapid, especially with the rears. From what we could
see, the indications we got from testing have been
confirmed, with four teams that you could describe as
favourites, although there could yet be a few surprises,
Force India for example. The new track is not bad: it is
fun, even if there are a few too many bumps which I hadn’t
spotted when I inspected it by bicycle.”
Felipe Massa:
“We worked a lot on finding the right balance on the car in
race trim and on comparing the two types of tyre, running
with various fuel levels, although never going for a quick
time. I am quite happy with what we have seen today, even if
it is difficult to get an accurate picture of how
competitive we are compared to the others. We will
definitely face stiff competition from many teams, but we
were preparing as well as possible for Sunday’s race and
tomorrow morning, we will work on qualifying. I’ve got a bit
of a temperature today, but I feel 100% for this start to
the season.”
Chris Dyer:
“We are reasonably pleased with the work done today. We had
a very busy programme and we got through just about all of
it: the only problem was a loss of air from a tyre on
Alonso’s car which interrupted his long run. We picked up a
lot of data which we will use to decide on set-up and
strategy for the rest of the weekend. It’s hard to say where
we are compared to the other teams in terms of performance
and we will only find that out tomorrow afternoon. The new
part of the circuit is rather narrow and at some points the
surface is very bumpy, but it does not present any
particular problems for the car.”
Free
practices - First Session
F. Alonso 2nd
1.56.766 18 laps 283 chassis
F. Massa 4th 1.57.055 19 laps 281 chassis
Free practice
- Second Session
F. Alonso 9th
1.57.140 25 laps 283 chassis
F. Massa 7th 1.56.555 30 laps 281 chassis
Weather
First session:
air 29/31 °C, track 37/42 °C; sunny
Second session: air 33 °C, track 47/46 °C; sunny
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