Practice Session 1 Kimi sets pace

By SA07
April 13 2007

On session one of the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain the battle between Ferrari and McLaren rages on while aguri finishes the session in 16th and 18th with both drivers reporting happy with the car.

Ferrari locked out the first two positions on the time sheet opening other teams eyes to how competitive they are, Ferrari almost a complete second in front of there rivals Mclaren. Lewis Hamilton out paced world champion Fernando Alonso to 3rd while Alonso pushed the MP4-22 to the limit making a few mistakes on the way.

Jarno Trulli ran to a solid 5th attempting to prove Toyota still has what it takes to be in F1, the BMW boys trailed Trulli with Heidfeld 6th and Kubica 7th hoping to have a stronger weekend than last week. Tonio Liuzzi makes a big u turn to Toro Rossos season by running in 8th we ask can they score points or be more competitive this weekend?? Williams duo Rosberg and Wurz ran next to him in 9th and 10th just edging out Hondas Jenson Button, will this be a better weekend for them??

Renault continue to struggle with a list of problems with Kovalainen in 12th and Toyotas Ralf Schumacher in unlucky 13th Fisichella makes it 14th for Renault and 15th for Speed who didnt seem to have the pace like his team mate. Super Aguris Takuma Sato end the session just behind him in 16th and says he would like more speed. We manage to out pace one of the Honda works team as Rubens Barrichello ends the session 17th and Anthony Davidson runs behind him in 18th who had some gearbox problems. The Red Bull team are off to a disappointing start as Mark Webber sits 19th and Coulthard 20th and the usual Spykers round off the top 22.

Reactions from Sato and Davidson are posted below and is from Super Aguri F1

Takuma Sato
"It was a good first day. We have maintained our momentum from last week in terms of long run pace, and also from the test here before the opening race when we tried a lot of SA07 aero configurations. I am happy with the consistency of the car, but we will work on increasing our speed for tomorrow."

Anthony Davidson
"We had a bit of a frustrating morning with a gearbox issue after the first stint. But after that was rectified we had a very good second session and found a good balance, especially on the soft Bridgestone Potenza tyre and got a good first lap balance at the end of the day. I am confident about the grip levels on the longer runs as well. The hard tyre is a different story, but I think that the gap should close between the two types of tyre, like we saw in Malaysia, over the weekend."


Times from ITVF1.com
Friday morning practice times from Sakhir

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m33.162s
2. MASSA Ferrari 1m33.679s
3. HAMILTON McLaren 1m34.110s
4. ALONSO McLaren 1m34.161s
5. TRULLI Toyota 1m34.896s
6. HEIDFELD BMW Sauber 1m35.076s
7. KUBICA BMW Sauber 1m35.248s
8. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m35.292s
9. ROSBERG Williams 1m35.375s
10. WURZ Williams 1m35.398s
11. BUTTON Honda 1m35.445s
12. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m35.474s
13. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m35.573s
14. FISICHELLA Renault 1m35.697s
15. SPEED Toro Rosso 1m35.726s
16. SATO Super Aguri 1m35.856s
17. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m35.911s
18. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m36.243s
19. WEBBER Red Bull 1m36.483s
20. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m36.513s
21. SUTIL Spyker 1m37.084s
22. ALBERS Spyker 1m38.258s