Williams upbeat for qualifying session
AT&T Williams have completed Friday’s free practice sessions for the last of the opening three flyaway races of the season, the Bahrain Grand Prix. With Kazuki Nakajima fulfilling his GP2 commitments, the team’s two race drivers carried out both practice sessions under hot conditions at the Sakhir circuit.
In preparation for Sunday’s race, the pair concentrated on set-up work and long runs to ensure both cars tolerate what will undoubtedly be another hot Grand Prix. Over the two sessions, Alex and Nico covered a total of 535kms and set the sixth and eighth quickest time respectively of session two.
Alex Wurz "Today we had a little bit of work to do because we didn’t test here over the winter. Nevertheless, I think that we are now just about there with the others. I did a tyre comparison at the end of session two and some set-up work over both and I now have quite a good idea where we’ll go for Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race. So far, then, we’re on target."
Nico Rosberg "It wasn’t so easy this morning but the track quickly improved so we improved as well. We found some good set-up solutions today. We went in the right direction and we caught up relatively quickly considering we didn’t test here. Track conditions seem to be quite different from how they were in the test so, from that point of view, that’s good for us. Our long run pace was also ok. We now just need to work on our qualifying performance overnight and during tomorrow morning’s practice session."
Sam Michael, Technical Director "It was a good first day in Bahrain. We spent both free practice sessions going through all the usual systems checks, particularly concentrating on the brakes and their wear and stabilised temperatures in these conditions. Everything seems to be working fine and at the right level. We’ve also been tuning the car for long runs because I’m sure the heat here will take its toll, especially on the tyres. We will now go and spend the evening working towards tomorrow’s qualifying session."
