Things were relatively quiet this morning at Sakhir, as has been the case since the new rules came into force: the teams only have two sets of tyres available, and they need to wait for the circuit to be useable in order to conduct proper tyre comparisons. Thus, Takuma Sato’s BAR, along with the two Toyotas and the two Renaults did not set a timed lap this morning as they waited for conditions to improve.
As is becoming customary, the team with three cars at its disposal set the fastest time in the first session. Ricardo Zonta’s Toyota went fastest, 0.6s ahead of Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari. The Scuderia is using its F2005 for the first time, but its driver completed just five laps; however, his performance indicates that the new machine should be more competitive than its predecessor. Rubens Barrichello finished fifth, but was the second fastest of the race drivers, which reinforces this impression.
Third and fourth were more test drivers: V Liuzzi (Red Bull) and Alex Wurz (McLaren) were over a second beyond the Toyota though. Pedro de la Rosa, filling in for the injured Juan Pablo Montoya, finished 6th, just behind the Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello. He finished ahead of Mark Webber (Williams), Raikkonen (McLaren) and Button (BAR).
The hardest worker this morning was Doornbos, in the 3rd Jordan, who completed 23 laps. Among the race drivers, Monteiro – also in a Jordan – completed the highest number of laps, with the Portuguese completing 18 laps. The action begins again at 14:00 local for the real action… and the first runs in anger for the two Renaults
1. 38 ZONTA Toyota M 1'31"449 213.247 Km/h
2. 1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari B 1'32"120 + 0'00"671 3. 37 LIUZZI RedBull Cosworth M 1'32"509 + 0'01"060 4. 35 WURZ McLaren Mercedes M 1'33"106 + 0'01"657 5. 2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari B 1'33"111 + 0'01"662 6. 10 DE LA ROSA McLaren Mercedes M 1'33"270 + 0'01"821 7. 7 WEBBER Williams BMW M 1'33"427 + 0'01"978 8. 9 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes M 1'33"836 + 0'02"387 9. 3 BUTTON BAR Honda M 1'34"002 + 0'02"553 10. 8 HEIDFELD Williams BMW M 1'34"722 + 0'03"273 11. 15 KLIEN RedBull Cosworth M 1'34"722 + 0'03"273 12. 14 COULTHARD RedBull Cosworth M 1'34"984 + 0'03"535 13. 39 DOORNBOS Jordan Toyota B 1'35"432 + 0'03"983 14. 12 MASSA Sauber Petronas M 1'35"531 + 0'04"082 15. 19 KARTHIKEYAN Jordan Toyota B 1'35"766 + 0'04"317 16. 18 MONTEIRO Jordan Toyota B 1'36"534 + 0'05"085 17. 11 VILLENEUVE Sauber Petronas M 1'37"112 + 0'05"663 18. 21 ALBERS Minardi Cosworth B 1'37"778 + 0'06"329 19. 20 FRIESACHER Minardi Cosworth B 1'38"603 + 0'07"154
