Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello finished fastest on a sizzling and spectacular opening day of practice in Bahrain on Friday ahead of Sunday’s inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix.
World champion Michael Schumacher dominated the morning’s first session but his Brazilian teammate Barrichello claimed the fastest time in the second hour as their rivals caught up.
Barrichello’s time of one minute, 31,45 seconds put him just one-thousandth of a second ahead of Colombian Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya as Schumacher finished fourth behind British BAR-Honda test driver Anthony Davidson.
”I think the car has been performing quite well on the first day here,” Barrichello said.
”I am happy with the set-up but there is still a lot of work to do as the track is very dirty. So we are having to second-guess the set-up for Sunday.
”The track has less grip than I expected after walking the track yesterday [Thursday]. But it is not becaue of the sand but simply because the surface is still new.
”It has been a positive day in terms of our work with the tyres, the engine and on set-up.”
Montoya was equally happy with the performance of his Williams and at the nature of the new track.
”I definitely like this track because it is quite challenging and this is how a good circuit must be,” he said.
”The facilities are amazing as everyone can see.
”Also the grip is not too bad in spite of all we have heard so far. And the track has become quicker and quicker throughout the session.
”The tyre choice won’t be easy though because both the tyres that Michelin has taken out here are good in different ways. It will be quite interesting to see what happens tomorrow and in the race. I am confident.”
Clear blue skies above the desert track pushed air temperatures up to 31 degrees Celsius and that, coupled with track temperature of 51 degrees Celsius, caused problems for some of the top teams.
McLaren’s difficult start to the season continued early in the session when Finn Kimi Raikkonen’s car ground to a halt at turn nine with a suspected engine failure that caused a small fire at the back of his car.
Raikkonen, who retired from the races in Australia and Malaysia because of engine and transmission problems respectively, failed to even complete a lap in the afternoon practice after running just 10 laps in the morning session.
And with five minutes to go Scot David Coulthard, who managed a total of 27 laps, was forced to stop when his car’s left rear tyre disintegrated and sent him spinning into the gravel at turn six.
Renault also hit trouble when Italian Jarno Trulli completed just 18 laps before being forced to stop with fire coming out of the back of his car after the second suspected engine failure of the session.
And his teammate Fernando Alonso was forced to cruise into the pits after his right rear tyre disintegrated — the second failure for Michelin in the session — after he went off the track at turn 15 with half the session gone.
Schumacher had spun at turn 11 with 20 minutes of the session gone but he became the first man to break into one minute, 31 seconds with a time of 1:31,732 before dropping down to fourth.
He had blitzed his rivals in the earlier morning session, the first-ever session to be run at the Bahrain International Circuit, when he set a time of one minute, 32,158 seconds to beat Barrichello into second place.
Their closest rival in that session, BAR-Honda tester Davidson, had finished 0,8 seconds behind as several drivers made mistakes and spun on the dusty circuit as they explored their limits.
Schumacher said: ”It has been an interesting start on this circuit. I enjoyed driving and I have to say the track layout is very demanding.
”It looks like the rest of the weekend will be a great challenge and I am looking forward to that.
”It seems that everyone is very close and from our point of view we can say that we have everything in place to be very competitive.” — Sapa-AFP