01/04/2005
NEWS STORY
Sauber drivers Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve finished 17th and 20th respectively after today's first practice sessions for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Jacques Villeneuve: "The car feels much better than it did in Malaysia and I did a lot more laps with it working properly than I was able to there. I know that we can work further on it to keep improving throughout the weekend."
Felipe Massa: "We worked purely on setting the car up today, and considering our strategy in relation to others', I am encouraged. We are closer than it looks from the lap times, and much stronger than we were in Sepang."
Willy Rampf (Technical Director): "Today we concerned ourselves wholly with race preparation and tyre evaluation, and did not therefore do low-fuel runs. We have amassed a lot of data for analysis before we make our tyre choice for the remainder of the weekend, and so far we are satisfied with our programme."