Heidfeld sets impressive pace in Bahrain
Nick Heidfeld led the way for BMW on the second day of testing at Bahrain on Friday - continuing to show just how competitive his team are likely to be in 2007 by finishing nearly eight tenths of a second ahead of his closest rival
With much warmer temperatures greeting the teams for the second day of this week's test, Heidfeld set his best lap of 1:30.469 in the cooler morning - as track temperatures topped 40 degrees centigrade by the afternoon.
Heidfeld set the fastest lap of the day during a qualifying simulation, and the German also worked on a scheduled aerodynamic test with the F1.07.
Teammate Robert Kubica, taking over from test driver Sebastian Vettel, was fifth fastest after 100 laps of the Sakhir circuit. Both Heidfeld and Kubica managed to carried out a full race simulation in the afternoon, completing a productive day for the team.
"Today was a good day we did a race simulation which went problem free which was very satisfying for us as last time we had some technical problems in the winter runs but today went well and the speeds seemed good," said Heidfeld.
"We have three more days of testing here, one tomorrow then two days off and two more days after that. It is the most important test for us and for many I'm sure as it's the last big test before the start of the season.
"I'm really excited about the start of the season, it is very special to me the first race and also I enjoy Melbourne and at the moment the car is looking good."
World champion Fernando Alonso was second for McLaren, and he and fourth fastest teammate Lewis Hamilton conducted long runs to try and dial their MP4-22 into the right settings for the season opening Australian Grand Prix.
Jenson Button proved that yesterday's much stronger showing from Honda Racing was not a flash in the pan as he set the third quickest time - although was 1.4 seconds adrift of Heidfeld.
Robert Kubica was fifth fastest, just a few hundredths of a second ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, whose long run pace looked the most impressive during the day.
Renault's test driver Nelson Piquet Jr. was seventh quickest, ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Honda's Rubens Barrichello.
Today's times:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:30.469 103 2. Alonso McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:31.225 64 3. Button Honda (B) 1:31.807 107 4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:31.934 87 5. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:32.220 100 6. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:32.240 67 7. Piquet Renault (B) 1:32.539 82 8. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:32.584 68 9. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:32.614 63 10. Kovalainen Renault (B) 1:32.973 67 11. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:33.139 65 12. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:33.155 90 13. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:33.248 108 14. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:33.930 42 15. Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:34.187 24 16. R.Schumacher Toyota (B) 1:34.464 50 All Timing Unofficial
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments