Formula One Testing Day 1: World Champion Sets the Pace in Bahrain
Manama, 4th February 2008: Ferrari’s reigning world champion Kimi Räikkönen
set a scorching pace in the desert today as Formula One returned to the Bahrain
International Circuit for three days of testing. Maintaining Ferrari’s strong
pre-season form, Räikkönen lapped the 5.41km circuit in a time of 1m 32.079s
which comfortably eclipsed the pole position time for last year’s Gulf Air
Bahrain Grand Prix set by his Brazilian team-mate Felipe Massa.
The 28-year-old Finn was working through his first day in Bahrain alongside the
Ferrari team’s official test driver, Italian Luca Badoer, completing 133 laps
between them. Badoer finished the day second on the timesheets as the two
all-new Ferrari F2008s kept ahead of the Panasonic Toyota Racing team which has
joined them for the Bahrain test.
Germany’s Timo Glock maintained his impressive start to life as a Formula One
driver by keeping pace with Badoer in the new Toyota TF108. As the winner of
last season’s GP2 ‘feeder’ category, Glock follows Williams ace Nico Rosberg and
McLaren-Mercedes sensation Lewis Hamilton into one of the most sought-after
drives in the world’s biggest annual sporting series.
“Overall I’m very happy with how today has gone,” Glock said. “We had some
problems this morning, mostly due to sand on the track which meant I spun a few
times. The surface is getting better though and hopefully we will be building
from here and getting a little faster each day. It’s certainly warmer than the
testing we’ve done in Europe so far.”
Glock was joined by Toyota’s young Japanese protégé Kamui Kobayashi, the former
Formula 3 Euroseries rookie of the year who finished fourth in last year’s
championship, one of the major proving grounds on the road to Formula One.
Kobayashi was standing in for Glock’s veteran team-mate Jarno Trulli, who will
begin his testing schedule in Bahrain tomorrow.
Testing Times – Bahrain International Circuit 4/2/2008
1 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari F2008 61 laps 1m 32.079s
2 Luca Badoer Ferrari F2008 72 laps 1m 33.323s
3 Timo Glock Toyota TF108 51 laps 1m 33.418s
4 Kamui Kobayashi Toyota TF108 44 laps 1m 33.485s
Bahrain International Circuit – Fastest Laps
2004 pole position time: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) 1m 30.139s
2005 Qualifying 1 time: Fernando Alonso (Renault) 1m 29.848s
2006 fastest testing time: Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m 29.958s
2006 pole position time: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) 1m 31.431s
2007 fastest testing time: Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m 29.989s
2007 pole position time: Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m 32.652s
