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| Bahraini GP 12th-15th April 2007 - Friday Free Practice 1.1 Report |
Length: 5.412 km |
| Kimi Raikkonen dominated the first practice session of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, lapping half a second faster than teammate Felipe Massa - and nearly a second clear of the fastest non-Ferrari.
The Finn was the first of the leading contenders to take to the track, emerging from the Ferrari garage after half an hour and immediately moving to the top of the standings by 1.2 seconds. Raikkonen then improved by half a second on his next lap and his 1:33.162 proved impossible to beat. Massa did not attempt a flying lap until nearly an hour into the session, and his first effort was a second shy of Raikkonen's, although he improved to within 0.517 seconds later in his run. McLaren seemed hard-pressed to match Ferrari's pace, both Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton lapping 1.5 seconds slower than Raikkonen at first. They closed the gap to 0.9 seconds on their final runs, but both appeared to be struggling for grip all morning. Alonso went off the road at Turn 10 on two consecutive laps and also drifted onto the sand at Turn 11, while Hamilton had two moments at the final corner. They weren't the only drivers battling to stay on the road after overnight storms rendered the track very 'green'. Heikki Kovalainen went straight on at Turn 1 early in the session, Alex Wurz had a spin at Turn 7, Massa had to save a wild moment after getting onto the kerbs at Turn 7, and Scott Speed, Giancarlo Fisichella and Christijan Albers also had minor incidents. The Toyotas had set the pace before the top two teams appeared, and Jarno Trulli's early time remained sufficient for fifth place, ahead of BMW's Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica. Vitantonio Liuzzi jumped to a surprise eighth position in the final seconds of the session. His improvement, and similar late gains by the two Williams, knocked Jenson Button out of the top ten after he had earlier put the Honda as high as seventh. But while Toro Rosso broke into the top eight, it was a disappointing morning for Red Bull, with David Coulthard and Mark Webber ending the session slower than all bar the Spykers. For the first time this season, only regular race drivers participated in Friday morning practice. BMW's test driver Sebastian Vettel has a clashing World Series by Renault event at Monza this weekend, while Williams' Kazuki Nakajima is focusing on his GP2 debut in Bahrain. |
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