2007 F1 Bahrain

[Dino Scuderia]

Kimi Raikkonen’s first laps in the Ferrari were enough to vault him to the top of the timesheets and the Finn would not be dislodged in the opening 90 minute practice session of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

Felipe Massa underlined the pace of the F2007 package as he too vaulted up the order to second fastest after sitting out the first half of the session. Raikkonen set a best lap of 1:33.162s half a second clear of Massa, while the McLaren Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso proved closely matched - but a second off the ultimate pace in third and fourth positions.

While it was pretty much as expected at the very front, Toyota showed well in this session with Jarno Trulli leading the way early on before being bumped down to fifth position as the session progressed. However, the 1.7s gap to Raikkonen shows how much of an advantage the Ferrari team have over the upper mid-field runners.

Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica were sixth and seventh fastest for BMW Sauber while Tonio Liuzzi banged in a fast lap right at the end of the session to move from 18th to eighth in his Toro Rosso Ferrari. Nico Rosberg and Alex Wurz, who suffered a spin late in the session, rounded out the top ten for Williams Toyota.

Honda will be mildly encouraged to Jenson Button record the 11th fastest time in the troublesome FA107. Team-mate Rubens Barrichello meanwhile languished down in 17th position.

Over at Renault and there seems to be no magic answer to their relative decline this year as Heikki Kovalainen was just 12th fastest with team-mate Fisichella behind the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher in 14th position. Scott Speed led team-mate Liuzzi up until the final minute of practice and was 15th fastest ahead of Takuma Sato, Barrichello and Anthony Davidson.

Red Bull Renault struggled for pace with Mark Webber and David Coulthard just 19th and 20th… Adrian Sutil got within a second of the Red Bull duo in his Spyker Ferrari while Christijan Albers was over a second off his team-mate at the back of the pack.

It is early days in Bahrain, but the F2007 looks like the package to have this weekend…

http://www.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlin...13104342.shtml

[Dino Scuderia]

FP2

The ultimate pace may not have been quite so fast from Kimi Raikkonen in the second practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix, but once again the Ferrari driver found himself at the head of the timesheets with a best lap of 1:33.527s. This time however it was much closer with Lewis Hamilton taking the second position just 0.013s shy of Raikkonen’s best.

The afternoon session is generally used by the teams to prepare for the race conditions and while this morning the times were very spread out, the top 11 this afternoon were covered by a second. With Raikkonen fastest ahead of Hamilton in the McLaren, Robert Kubica was a solid third fastest in his BMW Sauber.

Felipe Massa was fourth fastest on this occasion in his Ferrari just ahead of Fernando Alonso in the second McLaren. Alex Wurz and Nico Rosberg showed good pace for Williams Toyota with the sixth and eighth best times respectively with Nick Heidfeld in between in the second BMW Sauber.

After a slow start to the day this morning, Red Bull Renault were much more competitive this afternoon with David Coulthard and Mark Webber recording the ninth and 14th best times. Jarno Trulli led the way again at Toyota with the tenth best time while Ralf Schumacher was a second slower and just 18th.

Rubens Barrichello spent much of the session at the bottom of the timesheets in his Honda, but a late run saw him haul the RA107 up to 11th position. Team-mate Jenson Button suffered an engine failure mid-way through the session and ended the day slowest of the 22 runners.

Heikki Kovalainen set the 12th fastest time in his Renault with team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella 15th. Kovalainen’s time, while two-tenths up on his more experienced team-mate, was however a second off Raikkonen’s pace.

Now fully recovered from a bout of the flu, Anthony Davidson was a promising 13th best in his Super Aguri Honda ahead of Webber and Fisichella. Team-mate Takuma Sato was 16th ahead of Tonio Liuzzi in the leading Toro Rosso Ferrari and Ralf Schumacher. Adrian Sutil was 19th best in the leading Spyker Ferrari ahead of Scott Speed and Christijan Albers.

Ferrari had a massive advantage in the morning session, but on the longer runs it seems that McLaren Mercedes and perhaps BMW Sauber could be a factor as the race weekend progresses.

http://www.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlin...13144529.shtml

[Cotterik]

Shame about Honda this year. They were looking to be in the top 4 teams last year.

[Kitdy]

Looks like we could have a great race between Ferrari and McLaren but you usually gotta wait till qualy to see the REAL pace of the cars... Kimi FTW!

[Dino Scuderia]

FP3:

1 2 L. Hamilton McLaren B 1:32.543 12 (medium)
2 6 K. Räikkonen Ferrari B 1:32.549 +0:00.006 +0:00.006 16 (medium)
3 9 N. Heidfeld BMW B 1:32.652 +0:00.109 +0:00.103 15 (medium)
4 10 R. Kubica BMW B 1:32.755 +0:00.212 +0:00.103 15 (medium)
5 23 A. Davidson Super Aguri B 1:32.900 +0:00.357 +0:00.145 20 (medium)
6 5 F. Massa Ferrari B 1:32.950 +0:00.407 +0:00.050 12 (hard)
7 1 F. Alonso McLaren B 1:33.235 +0:00.692 +0:00.285 11 (medium)
8 15 M. Webber Red Bull B 1:33.399 +0:00.856 +0:00.164 14
9 3 G. Fisichella Renault B 1:33.602 +0:01.059 +0:00.203 17
10 4 H. Kovalainen Renault B 1:33.605 +0:01.062 +0:00.003 21
11 16 N. Rosberg Williams B 1:33.614 +0:01.071 +0:00.009 14
12 17 A. Wurz Williams B 1:33.658 +0:01.115 +0:00.044 17
13 18 V. Liuzzi Toro Rosso B 1:33.700 +0:01.157 +0:00.042 18
14 12 J. Trulli Toyota B 1:33.724 +0:01.181 +0:00.024 22
15 14 D. Coulthard Red Bull B 1:33.826 +0:01.283 +0:00.102 14
16 7 J. Button Honda B 1:34.023 +0:01.480 +0:00.197 20
17 22 T. Sato Super Aguri B 1:34.082 +0:01.539 +0:00.059 21
18 8 R. Barrichello Honda B 1:34.397 +0:01.854 +0:00.315 17
19 19 S. Speed Toro Rosso B 1:34.791 +0:02.248 +0:00.394 12
20 11 R. Schumacher Toyota B 1:35.144 +0:02.601 +0:00.353 11
21 21 C. Albers Spyker B 1:35.395 +0:02.852 +0:00.251 22
22 20 A. Sutil Spyker B 1:35.436 +0:02.893 +0:00.041 18

[Matra et Alpine]

So the Ferrari gantry "accidentally" fell down on the car breaking the wing ?

Yeah ... RIGHT .... check the cctv to see where Ron Dennis was last night

[Dino Scuderia]

Pressure for Massa to get pole...and he did...but the pressure will mount tomorrow as the guy who made a monkey of him last race, Hamiltion, is so close.

[Rockefella]

Position // Number // Name // Team // Time

1 5 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:32.443 1:31.359 1:32.652

2 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:32.580 1:31.732 1:32.935

3 6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:33.161 1:31.812 1:33.131

4 1 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes 1:33.049 1:32.214 1:33.192

5 9 Nick Heidfeld BMW 1:33.164 1:32.154 1:33.404

6 10 Robert Kubica BMW 1:33.348 1:32.292 1:33.710

7 3 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:33.556 1:32.889 1:34.056

8 15 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:33.496 1:32.808 1:34.106

9 12 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:33.218 1:32.429 1:34.154

10 16 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:33.349 1:32.815 1:34.399

11 17 Alexander Wurz Williams-Toyota 1:33.759 1:32.915

12 4 Heikki Kovalainen Renault 1:33.467 1:32.935

13 23 Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 1:33.299 1:33.082

14 11 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:33.923 1:33.294

15 8 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:33.776 1:33.624

16 7 Jenson Button Honda 1:33.967 1:33.731

17 22 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:33.984

18 18 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Ferrari 1:34.024

19 19 Scott Speed STR-Ferrari 1:34.333

20 20 Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari 1:35.280

21 14 David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:35.341

22 21 Christijan Albers Spyker-Ferrari 1:35.533

Interesting to see Massa outqualify Raikkonen and Hamilton out-do his superior in Alonso, but Kimi and Fernando look to be running a bit heavy compared to their teammates. Should make for an interesting race with a jumbled front 4.

[cmcpokey]

anybody watching it? i actually set an alarm to get up to watch the race.

[Vaigra]

I'm up for the race. Not that shocking really, it's 12:24 atm
Looking foward to a good race.

[cmcpokey]

yeah, its only 0726 here right now, and i had to gt up early yesterday, so i am sacrificing my only day to sleep in.


uh oh, national weather service just broke in to the broadcast..

[Vaigra]

National weather service? That's not a good thing I'm guessing. What are they predicting?

[cmcpokey]

ehh, it was a tornado warning, but it passed..

good race so far. kimi is looking faster than fernando, just can't get around him.

[Dino Scuderia]

Monster fast lap battle between Hamilton and Massa.

[adamfraser]

Great race so far.

Although, we get alot of ads on TV here.

F1 Live timing rules!