Kimi Brasil

The Lotus F1 Team drivers put some good mileage under their wheels in the second of today’s sessions this afternoon, with setup work the order of the day under the blistering Bahrain sun

Foto diretamente da @Lotus_F1Team

At 14:00 local time on the dot, the pit lane opened for the second round of Formula 1 action here at the Bahrain International circuit today. Both drivers completed short first runs on the white marked medium compound tyres, Kimi notching up 4 laps and Romain 3 tours of the 5.4km circuit before heading back to base for practise pull aways.

15 minutes and a few setup tweaks later, the pair were back at out on track on the same tyres as used in the previous run. This time Romain put in the most laps of the two, racking up 5 in comparison to Kimi’s 3.

The Finn’s third run of the session saw the first appearance of the yellow marked soft tyres as he emerged from the garage with just under an hour left to run. Romain followed 10 minutes later, again on the softer of the two tyre compounds, with each driver recording 3 laps apiece.

At the halfway stage of the session, Romain sat just inside the top 10 in P8, with Kimi down in P18. Setup changes had been the order of the day thus far, with a variety of different options being assessed.

Entering the second half of running and it was Kimi who once again lead the team back into the on track action, completing a 4 lap stint on the soft tyres and improving his time in the process. Romain, having been in deep discussion with his engineers, waited patiently for his next opportunity to throw his E20 around the circuit, emerging with just over 30 minutes left to run sporting the same compound of tyres.

Kimi’s was only a brief break, with fresh rubber bolted on – medium compound this time – and a practice start as he re-joined the fray. Longer stints this time around for both drivers; 11 and 15 laps added to the Finn’s and Frenchman’s totals respectively before diving into the pits for a pair of pit-stop simulations.

Each driver headed straight back onto the track having put the mechanics through their paces; Kimi on another set of soft tyres and Romain on the medium compound. As the session entered its final 10 minutes, this would prove to be the final chance for the team to analyse the E20’s performance this afternoon.

As the timer counted down to zero, Kimi and Romain brought the cars home for a well-earned break after an intense work out in the heat of Bahrain. With Friday running now concluded, Romain rounded off the day in P9 with a fastest time of 1:34.615 from 32 laps, while Kimi’s best effort of 1:35.183 from 33 laps was good enough for P13.