Ferrari happy with opening practice in Bahrain

At the end of the first free practice session at the Sakhir circuit, the Ferrari presented itself with a reasonable result. Despite the still dirty track Fernando Alonso drove the second fastest time in the morning with 1.56.766, and Felipe Massa, fourth with 1.57.055, 18 and 19 laps respectively and two runs on ‘hard’ tyres. The team concentrated on the F10’s behaviour on the Bahrain circuit, which is longer and has a different layout, with an extra section with slower corners than expected. The first session for the Bahrain GP was dominated by the German Force India driver Adrian Sutil 1.56.583, while the third fastest time was driven by the Polish Renault driver Robert Kubica 1.57.041.

Under the blazing sun at the Sakhir circuit the Mercedes with Nico Rosberg was the fastest car on the track during the second free practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix in a time of 1.55.409, followed by McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton 1.55.854 and the other Mercedes with Michael Schumacher 1.55.903. The F10s with Felipe Massa and Fernando drove the seventh and ninth fastest time respectively, with Felipe Massa gaining some positions towards the end.

The Brazilian completed 30 laps, his fastest in a time of 1.56.555, while his teammate Fernando Alonso took 1.57.140 for his fastest lap driving 25. The next and last free practice session for the Bahrain GP will be held tomorrow at 11am local time.

“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.”