05/02/2008
NEWS STORY
World Champion Kimi Raikkonen continued to set the pace at Sakhir today, posting a best faster than almost anything ever seen before at the Bahrain track, and 1.6s quicker than his Ferrari partner, Luca Badoer.
Kimi Raikkonen, and Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer, each worked on different programmes, helped by the improved weather conditions, milder and with almost no wind, compared to yesterday.
The Finn carried out a Grand Prix simulation, including the three qualifying sections and the entire race, complete with refuelling and tyre changing pit stops. Meanwhile, Badoer concentrated on general development of the F2008, and testing of different set-ups on the car.
Tomorrow, Felipe Massa will join Raikkonen.
Toyota continued with 2008 race drivers Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock taking the wheel of the TF108. The warm and sunny morning made for perfect testing conditions and both drivers were kept busy working on programmes of mechanical set-up changes. Some development items were also evaluated and other systems checks were carried out, however both cars suffered gearbox issues in the afternoon, costing valuable time as repairs were carried out.
Trulli will continue his programme tomorrow, alongside third driver Kamui Kobayashi.
"It hasn't been the easiest day," admitted Glock, "but we have done some good work. The potential in the new car is clear and we now understand more about how different set-up changes affect its performance. We are continuing to work hard to develop the car and today we have looked at mechanical set-up again, getting more useful information. Unfortunately we lost a little time in the afternoon but we still completed quite a few laps and did the work we had planned."
"It was a difficult day because we had a problem on the car," added Trulli, "so unfortunately I spent some time in the garage while this was fixed but that is part of testing. Obviously it wasn't ideal but we have more days here where we will work to better understand the balance and behaviour of the car. At the moment we are still in the first stages of our preparation - we have updates and more performance to come."
"Our focus today was again on developing the baseline set-up by trying different mechanical solutions," said Pascal Vasselon, "but unfortunately we lost a bit of time on both cars due to gearbox issues. This was a shame but we have been testing various parts, including the new gearbox, and we will learn from these issues to improve our package before the season starts. We lost some time but we didn't really lose any mileage as such because the reliability of the TF108 so far has been very good and we would have needed to control the mileage anyway. We carried out some productive work today and I feel we are improving constantly as we learn more about the TF108's characteristics."
Today's Times - All Times Unofficial
| Name | Team | T | Laps | Time | Gap |
| Raikkonen | Ferrari | B | 77 | 1:30.595 | 133.754 mph |
| Badoer | Ferrari | B | 64 | 1:32.230 | 1.635 |
| Glock | Toyota | B | 71 | 1:32.889 | 2.294 |
| Trulli | Toyota | B | 60 | 1:33.379 | 2.784 |
Best Times To Date
| Date | Driver | Team | T | Time | Gap |
| 05-Feb | Raikkonen | Ferrari | B | 1:30.595 | 133.754 mph |
| 05-Feb | Badoer | Ferrari | B | 1:32.230 | 1.635 |
| 05-Feb | Glock | Toyota | B | 1:32.889 | 2.294 |
| 05-Feb | Trulli | Toyota | B | 1:33.379 | 2.784 |
| 04-Feb | Kobayashi | Toyota | B | 1:33.856 | 3.261 |