Bourdais savours trouble-free practice

The Frenchman enjoyed his first trouble-free practice day of the year and ran as high as second in session two as he quickly came to grips with the desert track.

"I got into a good groove this morning with no real problems and we carried on the same way this afternoon," he said. "It meant I got quite a bit of running done which is a 'first' for a Friday this season for me. So, I'm happy about that.

"This is my first time at this track and I think it's quite nice, although the three slow corners are extremely slow and that does not seem to suit these cars. The track surface was actually in pretty good shape compared to what I had been expecting in terms of dirt and sand.

"They cleaned it very well and since the wind died down it greatly helped the situation," he added.

"The wind is supposed to pick up again for tomorrow and Sunday so it could be a bit of an adventure into the unknown every time we go out."

Teammate Sebastian Vettel was 16th fastest in the first session but the 20-year-old admitted he was far from happy with his car throughout practice and ended second practice in 20th.

"It was a tough day," he said. "On a track that does not see much running during the year, there is never much grip at first. I found it extremely difficult to drive in the morning and while the afternoon was a bit better, we are still a long way off where we want to be.

"To sum it up, we lacked grip and were too slow. Honestly, I am not sure which way to go to improve, but I am sure the situation will change after we study all the data before starting again tomorrow morning."