Kimi Raikkonen was happy to be able to recover after seeing his first session at the Bahrain International Circuit cut short when he stopped on track with a smoking engine after completing just six laps on Friday.
In between session, his Scuderia Ferrari mechanics replaced his engine, MGU-H and turbo to allow the Finn to return to the track, and he got within 0.168 seconds of team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who set the pace under the lights.
Luckily, the first session in Bahrain is not as useful as compared to other venues due to the race taking place later in the day in conditions more aligned to FP2, but Raikkonen knows work still needs to be done overnight to be competitive.
“It’s far too early to say what we can do here and conditions were tricky today,” said Raikkonen. “We had an issue that stopped us in very early part of the first session; this issue had nothing to do with the engine, but rather with the turbo area.
“The guys did a good job in fixing the car in order to be ready for the second practice. The day could have been a bit better, but that’s how it goes.
“I like this circuit, but there’s nothing more special here than in other places. Obviously it’s very hot and this can be a little bit tricky for the tyres. As usual on Friday there’s a lot of work to be done to be ready tomorrow.”
