BMW Sauber test driver Christian Klien lapped quickest in Sakhir as the second week of testing kicked off at the Bahrain International Circuit.
With sandstorms intervening during the opening week of testing Ferrari, BMW Sauber and Toyota were playing catch-up today and all three teams ran extended programmes.
Pace setter Christian Klien completed 131 laps for BMW Sauber and posted a best time of 1.32.544, ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli.
“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 had a productive day acclimatising Ferrari’s F60 to slick tyres and assessing different setup configurations, while Trulli, the busiest of all three drivers, focussed on mechanical and aerodynamic set-up.
“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,” said Trulli.
“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 in Bahrain continues tomorrow.
Today’s times:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Klien BMW-Sauber (B) 1:32.544 131
2. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:32.804 116
3. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:33.064 141
