Klien Encouraged after Promising Start

Jaguar driver Christian Klien is encouraged ahead of Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix at the Sakhir circuit.

The young Austrian, making his Grand Prix debut this season, finished an impressive fifth fastest in today's practice, just some three tenths of a second behind Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, who topped the timesheets with his Ferrari.

"I really like the track and it was good fun out there today," said Klien. "I spent the morning session learning the circuit and there are some good corners where you are going from 300kph down to 80ish and it's not easy to find the ideal braking point on such a new track.

"If you go off-line it's really dusty and of course this is affecting the tyres and the set-up. The engineers and mechanics did a good job setting the car up for the second session, hence my good time. The track may change come tomorrow but either way we are looking good and I am encouraged going into tomorrow."

Australian driver Mark Webber finished behind his teammate, in eighth position.

Webber, an impressive second quickest in qualifying for the previous Grand Prix in Malaysia, wound up eighth fastest in today's practice. The Australian, who is still chasing his first points of the season after two retirements, said his team were in good shape for the weekend.

"Until you get out there you really don't know what to expect but there were no surprises and we are in good shape," said Webber. "The track cleaned up a lot as the day progressed which makes a big difference to the car and the grip was good by this afternoon.

"We will work on set-up tonight in preparation for tomorrow and I am already looking forward to getting back out on track."