Not many surprises for Bridgestone

The first day of practice for the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix saw Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen top both 90 minute practice sessions at the 5.4 km Bahrain International Circuit.

Raikkonen was fastest from team-mate Felipe Massa in the morning by half a second and edged out McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon session by just over a hundredth of a second. Hamilton had been third fastest in the morning session, an honour which was taken by BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica in the afternoon.

Use was made of both the hard and medium compounds of Bridgestone Potenza in both sessions.

Kees van de Grint, Bridgestone Motorsport Head of Track Engineering Operations said: "There were not many surprises here today, after all we tested for six days at this track in the pre-season so teams had plenty of time to develop their understanding here, so there was nothing spectacularly different from this. In the morning session the track started slippery - more so than in testing - and this had an influence. The track was better in the afternoon with higher grip.

Seeing thirteen cars within a second of each other is promising for tomorrow's qualifying session. The medium compound has a clear advantage of around half a second over the hard, but in testing when the track improved the difference in terms of lap time and degradation reduced. The only real surprise so far has been the rain we saw last night, which was more than we have experienced in all our other visits to Bahrain put together."