Bahrain - Kers Problems

Sakhir, 17th February - Kimi Raikkonen's last test day at Sakhir wasn't born under a lucky star. The day started fairly well with a series of runs dedicated to the different set up configurations; just after 11:30am the car started to have a problem with the KERS' cooling circuit and the Finnish driver had to come to the box. Until then Kimi had driven 40 laps, the fastest in a time of 1.33.108.

The stop to repair the KERS took more than three hours: just after 3pm - the first lap was driven at 3:20pm - Kimi came back on the track. Nevertheless there was one positive aspect, as the Team was able to experiment with an emergency in case of a KERS failure. During the winter break lots of analytic work was done and the Team has been profoundly trained as far as the KERS is concerned. This knowledge could be used today.

The Team followed all procedures in a rigorous and precise way, but especially under absolute safety. Obviously Kimi and everybody else would have preferred to stay out on the track, but this unexpected incident was a useful experience for the future.

Until Kimi went back on the track the fastest lap of the day was driven by Jarno Trulli (Toyota) in 1.32.845, followed by Nick Heidfeld (BMW) in 1.32.879. The Toyota driver was the only one without any problems and could drive 111 laps, while his German colleague had a long stop in the morning and could drive 58 laps.

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