Williams 6th & 8th after Friday Bahrain Practice

With the AT&T Williams team seeing their drivers finish the first practice session
for the Bahrain Grand Prix in ninth and tenth. Both drivers would post their times
late in the first practice session with Nico leading his more experienced team-mate Alex Wurz.

Kubica would be the first car out in the session followed by a flood of other drivers all out to complete their installation laps. Heidfeld would set the first time, 1m:36.190, followed by Kovalainen, Sato, and Davidson. Torro Rosso's Toni Liuzzi would move to the top of the times with a 1m:35.312. Speed would move into second. Heidfeld would take this spot back as Coulthard, Webber, and Trulli took to the track. We also had both McLaren's out for their first laps. We had yet to see Massa and both of the Williams cars come out for the second session.

Fisichella was now in fifth, 1m:36.600, but both Renault's would pit. Coulthard and Webber were now in tenth and eleventh. Nico would be the first of the Williams cars to leave the pit lane. Alonso was on a quick lap finishing with a time of 1m:34.211 to go fastest, 1.1 seconds ahead of Liuzzi. Hamilton was now in second, 1m:34.413. With ten minutes of the session run Alex would finally make an appearance. Raikkonen was down in eighth. Nico's first lap would see him in sixth, 1m:35.898. What each of the teams were working on would affect their pace so it was hard to determine exactly what was going on.

Kubica was now fourth, 1m:35.428. Massa was the final car to leave the pits. Alex's first lap, 1m:35.935, would see him in eighth. Nico was now in seventh. Kubica had improved to be in third, 1m:35.290, but the McLaren's were still a considerable margin in front. Massa was now in seventh, 1m:35.872. Both Nico and Alex continued to circulate around the track. Both were over 1.5 seconds slower than the times been set by the McLaren's. Kovalainen was now third, 1m:34.868. Most drivers had pitted including Nico. Fisichella would move into fourth while Alex would pit. Nico and Alex were in eleventh and twelfth. Nico would also pit. Massa would move to the top of the times with a 1m:34.043.

With an forty five minutes remaining Nico would return to the track looking to improve on his fourteenth place. And it would be a very big improvement from the Williams driver. His lap would see him move into the 1m:34 second bracket. His was was a 1m:34.189 to see him in second just 0.146 behind Massa. After his quick time he would pit. Alex had also come back out. Could he match Nico's times. Several drivers had moments leaving the track. They included Webber, Liuzzi, and Raikkonen. Alex was also able to put in a quick lap which would see him in fifth, 1m:34.861. But Webber would push him down one spot to sixth.

With forty minutes remaining the order was Massa from Nico, Alonso, Hamilton, Webber, Alex, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Fisichella and in tenth Liuzzi. Slowest Barrichello who again was having a real struggle with his Honda. Team-mate Button was down in eighteenth. Alonso was able to sneak ahead of Massa with a 1m:33.784. Nico was now in third. Alex had pitted leaving Nico out on the track. Heidfeld would also make up ground moving into third, 1m:34.076. With just over thirty minutes left only two drivers were still in their pits, Alex and Webber.

Nico would join Alex back in his pit. Nico was now in fifth as Raikkonen was able to move into second with a 1m:33.973. Alex was now in eighth. But Nico was only 0.4 behind the quickest time set by Alonso. Hamilton was in sixth followed by an improving Kubica. Alex was now in ninth. Button had stopped in sector one. Today was turning out to be a bad day for the Honda team. Button would suffer an engine failure which would see Massa spin on the oil from the engine. Things were not much better for Toyota with Trulli and Ralf in seventeenth and twentieth places.

Alex would return to the track and he was on a quick lap setting the fastest second sector time. He would set personal best times in the other two sectors. His lap, 1m:33.973, would see him in third. So we now had both of the Williams cars in the top six, Alex third and Nico sixth. Nico was now also back out with twenty minutes left in the session. Alex's time was identical to that of Raikkonen. There was now just a few drivers left in their pits. But Alex would join them after setting his time. Hamilton would head back out.

Hamilton would move into the top spot, 1m:33.540, but Raikkonen was able to move ahead of the McLaren with a 1m:33.527. Kubica was now in third pushing Alonso down to fourth. Alex was now in fifth and Nico eighth with only a handful of minutes remaining. With the end of the session only Massa had been able to improve moving into fourth. Alex would finish in sixth and Nico eighth. A very encouraging start for the Williams team to have both cars on the pace.