Bahrain day one - Klien quickest for BMW Sauber
Following last week’s session, Ferrari, BMW Sauber and Toyota resumed testing in Bahrain on Monday. BMW Sauber tester Christian Klien was the man to beat, clocking a best time of 1m 32.544s around the Sakhir circuit to finish over two tenths of a second ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.
With the sun shining, Klien completed 131 laps over the course of the day in the F1.09. The Austrian was charged with mechanical and aero set-up work, as well as evaluating different tyre compounds. Team mate Nick Heidfeld will be in action for the German-Swiss team on Tuesday.
“Today was a very productive day”, said Klien. “We collected a lot of data and I even did a long run at the end of the session. Again we didn’t have a single technical problem, which is very encouraging.”
Raikkonen focused chiefly on assessing different set-up configurations, carrying out tyre comparisons and evaluating the car’s overall reliability. The Finn, who covered 116 laps in the F60, will continue to test on Tuesday.
Completing Monday’s runners was Jarno Trulli, who finished in third for Toyota. Trulli covered 141 laps, working through a comprehensive programme of mechanical and aerodynamic set-up, alongside tyre comparisons. The Italian will be back in the TF109’s cockpit on Tuesday.
"We made it through way more than two race distances today - in fact I think this is my personal best for mileage at a test day!” he said. “So I'd say this was a positive and productive day. There were a lot of items to test on a full programme and we got through everything. We made good progress and we were consistently competitive all day long. This has been a good start to our second week here."
Testing continues in Bahrain on Tuesday.
Unofficial Monday times from Bahrain:
1. Christian Klien, BMW Sauber, 1:32.544
2. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:32.804
3. Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 1:33.064
