Red Bull: Still Work to Do

Optimism about the team's pace had been at a high following double points-scoring finishes in the season-opening Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix, but both drivers admitted that there was work to do if they were going to repeat that feat at Sakhir.

"The session was pretty okay," said Klien, who ended the day 13th fastest. "The car seems well suited to the track.  We did a tyre comparison between soft and hard compounds today and it is quite clear what to take.

"I think the session was successful but it was very difficult to drive off line. We finished our full programme, so I think it was a good day overall. But for tomorrow we are a little bit further behind than in the first two races so we have to start from there and see what we can do to get better."

Coulthard, who was three tenths off Klien in 16th place, added: "I had a trouble free day with no problems on the car while working to finding the set up and making the tyre choice, which seams pretty clear cut. As usual lap times on Friday do not mean very much but I think we still have some work to up our pace."

Red Bull's best news of the day came with third driver Vitantonio Liuzzi setting the third quickest time behind McLaren's Alexander Wurz and Renault's Fernando Alonso despite a minor throttle problem.

"We finally finished a complete session as we did a lot of laps, which is good for the team," said the Italian, who is likely to take over the second car from Klien from the San Marino Grand Prix.

"This morning I had to learn the circuit as it is my first time in Bahrain. The track was quite sandy and dirty, which made it a bit difficult. Then later this afternoon we had new tyres but I could not go too quickly as there was a lot of traffic. But after that we improved a lot and the lap times improved."