2010 Bahrain Grand Prix (Sakhir, Round 1, Practice Sessions)

The first practice sessions of 2010 gave very little away in terms of how the teams will run in the race; however it did give the teams the opportunity to run on the extended circuit – something already covered here). 

It appeared as if most of the teams were trying out heavy runs to see how they will go in the race, except for HRT who just seemed happy to get their car running for the first time. Unfortunately for the new Spanish team, Bruno Senna only managed three laps in the morning and not a whole lot more during the second session and was way off the front running pace – his HRT machine looking massively unstable through the faster sweeps.

The teams that everyone expected to be fast – Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes – did not disappoint and there were signs of Force India tagging onto the back of that group. At the back end of the field, the teams that were expected to be off the pace – Lotus, Virgin and the aforementioned HRT – were indeed quite off the pace. An unretired Michael Schumacher seemed to be struggling with his new Mercedes car if the reports from the pits are to be believed, although his new team mate, Nico Rosberg, found his car much more comfortable.
There were also a couple of wheel problems over the first couple of days of running. On Friday afternoon, a wheel nut from Bruno Senna’s car came free at the end of second practice, thereby stopping his session and Timo Glock’s Virgin Racing machine lost his front right wheel during Saturday morning, leaving him trundling around the circuit on three wheels.

Sakhir, 3rd Free Practice (March 13th)
1 ALONSO Ferrari 1m54.099s
2 ROSBERG Mercedes 1m54.368s
3 WEBBER Red Bull 1m54.500s
4 SCHUMACHER Mercedes 1m54.533s
5 VETTEL Red Bull 1m54.646s
6 MASSA Ferrari 1m54.739s
7 BUTTON McLaren 1m55.000s
8 KUBICA Renault 1m55.331s
9 LIUZZI Force India 1m55.432s
10 HULKENBERG Williams 1m55.461s
11 SUTIL Force India 1m55.521s
12 HAMILTON McLaren 1m55.860s
13 DE LA ROSA Sauber 1m56.063s
14 BARRICHELLO Williams 1m56.259s
15 BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m56.295s
16 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m56.504s
17 KOBAYASHI Sauber 1m56.530s
18 PETROV Renault 1m56.811s
19 GLOCK Virgin 1m59.173s
20 KOVALAINEN Lotus 1m59.789s
21 TRULLI Lotus 2m01.259s
22 SENNA HRT 2m04.001s
23 DI GRASSI Virgin no time
24 CHANDHOK HRT no time

Sakhir, 2nd Free Practice (March 12th)
1 ROSBERG Mercedes 1m55.409s
2 HAMILTON McLaren 1m55.854s
3 SCHUMACHER Mercedes 1m55.903s
4 BUTTON McLaren 1m56.076s
5 VETTEL Red Bull 1m56.459s
6 HULKENBERG Williams 1m56.501s
7 MASSA Ferrari 1m56.555s
8 PETROV Renault 1m56.750s
9 ALONSO Ferrari 1m57.140s
10 DE LA ROSA Sauber 1m57.255s
11 KOBAYASHI Sauber 1m57.352s
12 SUTIL Force India 1m57.361s
13 BARRICHELLO Williams 1m57.452s
14 LIUZZI Force India 1m57.833s
15 KUBICA Renault 1m58.155s
16 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m59.799s
17 WEBBER Red Bull 2m00.444s
18 KOVALAINEN Lotus 2m00.873s
19 TRULLI Lotus 2m00.990s
20 GLOCK Virgin 2m02.037s
21 DI GRASSI Virgin 2m02.188s
22 SENNA HRT 2m06.968s
23 BUEMI Toro Rosso no time
24 CHANDHOK HRT no time