Free Practice 1: Hamilton leads ahead of BMW drivers

Under the Bahrain sun, Lewis Hamilton with his MP4/24 starts the race weekend well as he holds the fastest time during this first free practice session. On the Sakhir circuit, the Briton is followed by two returnees with Nick Heidfeld (BMW) and Robert Kubica (BMW) in second and third positions, respectively.

Free practice sessions are always difficult to understand because we don’t know the fuel levels of the different teams. Yet, the world champion didn’t need to put on a show to be the fastest during almost the entire session. BMW drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica tried everything by using ‘Super-Soft’ tires (compared to the majority of the field on ‘Medium’ tires), but it wasn’t enough to beat Hamilton. Before this tire change, they were 7th and 14th. As a reminder, the German driver has the KERS at the start of the weekend.

After the traditional first 20 minutes of inactivity following the installation lap, Sébastien Bourdais was the first to return to the track to properly begin his testing program. But his time was quickly beaten by Nico Rosberg, who completed a series of laps resulting in a time of 1.34.363.

The German remained in command until mid-session, beyond which it was Hamilton who became the almost uncontested leader. The McLaren driver, who benefited from the latest modifications on his MP4/24, first set a lap time of 1:34.189.

An interesting feature of the Bahrain circuit is that it requires producing a series of several laps to get the best out of Bridgestone’s ‘Medium’ tires. This is how Hamilton pulls away from the Williams driver by 0.716 seconds.

The time of 1:33.647 was not improved upon for the rest of the session, but Rosberg couldn’t hold back the BMWs. Kazuki Nakajima’s teammate, who was 11th this morning, might have done better if a yellow flag hadn’t interrupted his path when Sébastian Buemi (20th and last) in the Toro Rosso stopped at the exit of turn 8. He therefore finishes 4th.

Behind the top four, we find the championship leader, Jenson Button, with his BGP001, who struggled at the beginning of the session due to a gearbox issue. Heikki Kovalainen is sixth for McLaren, just ahead of the second Brawn driver, Rubens Barrichello.

Felipe Massa (Ferrari), who was driving with KERS, and Mark Webber (Red Bull) are 8th and 9th, while Kimi Räikkönen makes it into the top 10 in extremis without the KERS. The Finn brushed the safety barriers at turn 2 at the beginning of the session.

The winner of the Shanghai race is in 12th position with his RB5. Nelson Piquet will be delighted with this 13th best time as his Renault is being updated. The session was difficult for his teammate Fernando Alonso, finishing 18th while assessing the KERS.

Adrian Sutil is 14th while his teammate at Force India, Giancarlo Fisichella, is 16th. However, to everyone’s surprise, the Toyota drivers are far behind as Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock are only 15th and 17th.

Toro Rosso closes the field with Sébastien Bourdais, who has a two-hundredth of a second lead over Sébastien Buemi. The latter was forced to abandon his STR4 at the end of the session due to a mechanical failure.

Turn 10 was the scene of several incidents with Kovalainen, Alonso, Buemi, Fisichella, or Heidfeld going slightly wide.

The 20 drivers are within 1.7 seconds of each other and are now preparing for this afternoon’s session.

Results Free Practice 1 – Sakhir – Friday, April 24, 2009: