Heidfeld sets impressive pace in Bahrain

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