14/02/2006
NEWS STORY
Ferrari's Luca Badoer continues to set the pace at the Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain, on the second day of testing at the track which will host the 2006 season opener.
The Italian was once again joined by Felipe Massa, as the team focussed on tyre testing and set-up work.
Massa continued with the 248 F1, while Badoer was, once again, at the wheel of a V10 powered F2004.
Between them, Honda's 2006 drivers, Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button, completed almost 200 laps, posting best times just 0.036s apart, and almost 0.4s quicker than the next quickest V8 driver (Massa).
Tonio Liuzzi was in the cockpit for Toro Rosso, though he was able to take an 'early bath' as a gearbox problem meant the (Red Bull) RB1 was forced to miss the final 90 minutes of the session.
"Nevertheless, it was a reasonable day with signs of performance gain and general progress," reckoned Chief Engineer, Laurent Mekies. "As expected, the track was much cleaner than yesterday which allowed us to be more precise in our set-up work. Also, track temperatures were much higher today which made for a more realistic simulation of what we can expect for the race here in three weeks time, which is particularly relevant as far as the tyres are concerned."
Tomorrow, Switzerland's Neel Jani, the team's 2006 'Friday only' driver, will have his first run in RB1.
Weather
Air temperature: 23-28 C
Track temperature: 25-39 C.
Sunny, some cloud