13/02/2009
NEWS STORY
After two days of disruption as a result of sandstorms, testing at the Bahrain International Circuit finally got back to normal today, allowing the three drivers present to complete over 350 laps.
Initially conditions were not ideal as sand still covered the track, however, after two hours of 'treatment' from the Bridgestone slick tyres the lap times started to drop and at long last it was possible to do some serious work.
"The track was very slippery in the morning, due to the sand," said Kimi Raikkonen who topped the timesheets with a 1:33.325, "but we managed to go ahead with our programme.
"It's a pity for the time we lost over the last few days, but it didn't depend on us," he continued. "This happens and you just have to accept it. My first day with the new F60 on a dry track was extremely positive. I immediately had a good feeling although it's still too early to say where we are compared to our competitors. The car is improving and there are no especially critical areas. We used the KERS also today and I'm happy with how it works, apart from some minor 'childhood disease'."
In spite of continued strong winds, Toyota, like its two rival teams, put in a full day's work with Jarno Trulli working on set-up and tyres. The Italian had a positive day and was able to complete well over 120 laps.
"This was a good day's work," said Trulli. "In the morning the track conditions were still really poor with a lot of dust on the circuit. It was also very windy but the surface cleaned up during the day and got better and better. We managed to get through a lot of laps and the car balance felt pretty good. We are still playing around with set-up and other parameters to understand how to get the most out of the package. But it looks promising so far so let's hope we can carry on like this."
"That was finally the kind of day that you expect when you go for winter testing in Bahrain," added Dieter Gass. "After the interruptions of the last two days, we enjoyed fine weather with perfect sunshine throughout the sessions. There was still some wind which made the comparisons harder, but we were able to get through a lot of laps. We looked at different tyres and some set-up development directions. It is not often that we get through two race distances in a day so that bodes well for our reliability. Overall it has been a positive end to the week."
For BMW, Christian Klien concentrated on set-up work and tried different tyre compounds. With the car running for 125 laps without any problems, the engineers were able to collect a lot of data valuable data on its behaviour in warm weather conditions.
"In the morning the track was still slightly wet as a result of being cleaned after yesterday's sandstorm," said Klien. "Because of this it took some time to build up a proper grip level. That gave me the opportunity to get used to the BMW Sauber F1.09, which I drove for the very first time. In the afternoon the track conditions were much better and we were able to go ahead with our test programme as scheduled."
Klien is back on duty on Monday, the first of four more days of testing at the Sakhir track.