Bahrain 2009: Friday Practice One

Bahrain 2009: Friday Practice One

Round four of the 2009 Formula One World Championship got underway earlier today with the first practice session at the Sakhir circuit. Like in Shanghai last weekend, the McLarens are showing revitalised pace with Lewis Hamilton going fastest and team mate Heikki Kovalainen breaking for lunch in sixth. The Williams of Nico Rosberg was high up the order as well, as were the Brawns and BMWs. Even the Ferraris managed to get both cars into the top ten.

Hamilton led comfortably and even a late surge from the BMWs of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica couldn’t displace the Briton. It is unusual to see the Swiss-German team so high up the tables in a practice session; Mario Theissen preferring to hide pace of his team until later in the weekend. However, with perhaps not the greatest of cars in comparison to others, both BMW pilots utilised the 90 minutes of running well and finished just 0.3s shy of the leading McLaren, albeit on the soft compound.

Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello weren’t as close to the top of the table as they are used to, and Button suffered an upshift problem with his gear box. So far the box hasn’t been replaced and Brawn will want to avoid changing it as the result would be a 5 grid slot penalty. Both Ferraris showed signs of some improvement, with Felipe Massa finishing in P8 and Kimi Raikkonen in P10, although Raikkonen was lucky to escape a meeting with the barrier after he lost the F60 on the exit of T2.

Uncharacteristically, Fernando Alonso was well down the order, as were both Toyotas. This allowed the Force India cars to move up, with Adrian Sutil ending his morning in P14 and Giancarlo Fisichella in P16. The times set for the bottom ten were very close and should hopefully mean a close qualifying session tomorrow. Mark Webber and Kimi Raikkonen also set identical lap times to within a thousandth of a second, the Australian being ahead due to to setting the time first.

Bahrain 2009
Friday Free Practice One

Lap Time
Fastest Time Set

Laps Set
Number Laps Set

1. British FlagLewis Hamilton McLaren 1m33.647s 19 Laps
2. German FlagNick Heidfeld BMW 1m33.907s 17 Laps
3. Polish FlagRobert Kubica BMW 1m33.938s 17 Laps
4. German FlagNico Rosberg Williams 1m34.227s 24 Laps
5. British FlagJenson Button Brawn 1m34.434s 15 Laps
6. Finnish FlagHeikki Kovalainen McLaren 1m34.502s 24 Laps
7. Brazilian FlagRubens Barrichello Brawn 1m34.531s 18 Laps
8. Brazilian FlagFelipe Massa Ferrari 1m34.589s 17 Laps
9. Australian FlagMark Webber Red Bull Racing 1m34.827s 21 Laps
10. Finnish FlagKimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m34.827s 19 Laps
11. Japanese FlagKazuki Nakajima Williams 1m34.880s 24 Laps
12. German FlagSebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1m34.938s 21 Laps
13. Brazilian FlagNelson Piquet Jr. Renault 1m34.974s 21 Laps
14. German FlagAdrian Sutil Force India 1m35.021s 18 Laps
15. Italian FlagJarno Trulli Toyota 1m35.036s 22 Laps
16. Italian FlagGiancarlo Fisichella Force India 1m35.042s 16 Laps
17. German FlagTimo Glock Toyota 1m35.333s 20 Laps
18. Spanish FlagFernando Alonso Renault 1m35.348s 24 Laps
19. French FlagSebastien Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1m35.353s 22 Laps
20. Swiss FlagSebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1m35.369s 15 Laps

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