15/02/2006
NEWS STORY
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Although it was Ferrari's Felipe Massa who topped the timesheets today at Sakhir, the real interest is the progress being made by Honda, with Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello completing over 240 laps (800 miles).
It was a mixed day for Ferrari. Felipe Massa, at the wheel of a (restricted) V10 powered F2004, was quickest, completing 92 laps as he focussed on set-ups, tyre and electronics testing. However, Michael Schumacher, driving the 248 F1, and carrying out a similar programme, was sidelined buy a "mechanical problem" after just 37 laps, his best time over two seconds off the pace.
Button and Barrichello both focused on tyre and aerodynamic evaluations in the morning session before completing race simulation exercises in the afternoon session, in conjunction with further tyre evaluations.
The Englishman completed a very impressive 140 laps, once again setting the second fastest time overall and the fastest time of the V8 runners. The Brazilian also completed more than 100 laps and was third fastest overall.
Neel who will be Toro Rosso's 'Man Friday' at this year's Grands Prix was having his first taste of Formula 1 for almost a year.
"Until today, I only had a thousand F1 kilometres under my belt, some of it dating back to 2004," he said. "So today, I was getting used to the speed and the braking power and especially the cornering - at first you think the car can't go through the turn at that speed, but you have to tell yourself it does... and it does! I really enjoyed myself and look forward to my next test in Imola."
Today's technical programme was aimed mainly at getting Jani used to the car. "We sent him out on track with the set-up we had established over the past two days," commented Team Principal Franz Tost. "After a while, we started making small changes to the aero settings, the ride height and weight distribution, so that he could feel the effect of these changes. He did a good job today."
Tomorrow is the final day in Bahrain, with Scott Speed driving in the morning and Tonio Liuzzi in the afternoon.