Nico's Bahrain Blog: Saturday

Posted on Sunday 26 Apr 2009 and tagged with nico, bahrain, blog.

That was the most difficult qualifying session of the year so far. The new parts that we’ve brought to this race are definitely a step forward, but I didn’t feel comfortable in the car today. The extreme conditions – track 50 degrees, ambient 38 degrees – meant the tyres were on the limit in terms of durability and that affected the balance of my car.

I have a lot of fuel in my FW31 and I hope that I can do something in tomorrow’s race, when the temperatures are predicted to be cooler than today. The biggest threats to me will be the KERS-equipped cars of Felipe Massa directly ahead of me and Kimi Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen directly behind. The layout of the Sakhir circuit lends itself to KERS more than most because the heavy braking areas allow the system to re-charge quickly and its brief 80bhp boost per lap could make those cars very difficult to overtake.

It will be a long, hot race tomorrow and I plan to be very patient. Reliability will probably be a factor and I want to be there at the chequered flag. Tomorrow will be about scoring as many points as possible.