Ferrari drivers under no illusions

The Maranello-based squad is yet to score a point in three races and faces the prospect of enduring its worst start to a season if it fails to score in Bahrain.

Things did not start brilliantly for Ferrari on Friday, with Raikkonen languishing in 18th position at the end of the day.

The Finn admitted it was no surprise for him to be so slow.

"Even if we don't know what fuel loads the other teams had, it's clear that we are not as quick as we would like, but we have to try and make the best of this situation," said Raikkonen. "Anyway, we knew that the picture for this race would be no different to what we've seen in previous ones.

"Today we opted to run in two different configurations and did a lot of work on finding the best set-up for the car. We collected a lot of data which we will now analyse, to be as well prepared as possible for the race.

"We can expect a difficult weekend, but we were never in any doubt about that."

Team-mate Felipe Massa was equally downbeat about his day after posting the 16th quickest time.

"This was definitely not a good day," said Massa. "We worked a lot towards the race, but we have to try and improve the handling of the car to move up the order for tomorrow and Sunday.

"The harder tyre is very difficult to use, while the soft one seems to be the best, not just in terms of outright performance but also over a distance. The KERS helps: without it, I would have certainly been slower.

"I made a mistake at the final turn on my last set of soft tyres, which cost me at least three tenths. We must be patient at the moment and try to do the best possible in these conditions."