06/02/2008
NEWS STORY
On the final day of the first phase of testing at Sakhir, Kimi Raikkonen once again set the pace, sending out a clear message that he and Ferrari are well and truly up to the challenge of defending their titles.
Today, Raikkonen was joined by Felipe Massa as the team worked on general development of the F2008, concentrating on comparisons between different set-ups.
Having blasted around the track in 1:30.595 yesterday, today the Finn raised the bar by a further a further 0.140s, outpacing his teammate by 0.838.
The Finn and the Brazilian will be back in action here on Saturday when the final three days of testing gets underway.
Toyota brought the first part of its Bahrain test to a close today also, with Jarno Trulli and Kamui Kobayashi resuming work on set-up and development items.
Both drivers looked at different mechanical set-up options, gathering information for the team to study in order to get more out of the TF108. Kobayashi also completed some practice pit stops. Neither driver suffered any reliability problems which enabled both to complete all their planned work on a warm and sunny day.
The team will resume its programme on Saturday, with Jarno and Timo Glock at the wheel.
"This was a better day for us because we had no technical problems and the weather improved quite a bit," said Trulli. "We completed a lot of laps which was important because we had quite a few things to test and we needed to get some information about the different mechanical set-ups. Everything went well and we are making progress but we still have to push hard to continue this improvement."
"Today was successful and I did all the work we had planned," added Kobayashi. "The weather has improved here since Monday, when I last tested, and that made for better track conditions, especially as there was much less wind today. This was my last day in the car until Barcelona later this month so I hope Timo and Jarno can continue to find improvement during the rest of our time in Bahrain."
"We can be pleased with today's work," said Pascal Vasselon, "which was mainly focused on mechanical set-up for race conditions. We wanted to investigate several options and we now have a lot of data to study which will help us. It has been a very useful three days. Even if we did not get temperatures in the very high range we have had very good weather conditions and we have been able to test all day long during the three days. The only minor downside is it tends to be a bit windy but that was better today and all in all we have done some good work."
Today's Times - All Times Unofficial
| Name | Team | T | Laps | Time | Gap |
| Raikkonen | Ferrari | B | 74 | 1:30.455 | 133.961 mph |
| Massa | Ferrari | B | 73 | 1:31.293 | 0.838 |
| Trulli | Toyota | B | 97 | 1:32.145 | 1.690 |
| Kobayashi | Toyota | B | 53 | 1:32.265 | 1.810 |
Best Times To Date
| Date | Driver | Team | T | Time | Gap |
| 06-Feb | Raikkonen | Ferrari | B | 1:30.455 | 133.961 mph |
| 06-Feb | Massa | Ferrari | B | 1:31.293 | 0.838 |
| 06-Feb | Trulli | Toyota | B | 1:32.145 | 1.690 |
| 05-Feb | Badoer | Ferrari | B | 1:32.230 | 1.775 |
| 06-Feb | Kobayashi | Toyota | B | 1:32.265 | 1.810 |
| 05-Feb | Glock | Toyota | B | 1:32.889 | 2.434 |