On-board today was Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen, who started the day doing a few short runs on the Sakhir circuit. However, after only 40 laps in the morning – in which he managed to score the best time of 1:33.108 – the Ferrari F60 had to pull into the pits due to a problem with the KERS' cooling system.
It took more than 3 hours for the Ferrari mechanics to solve the problem and send Raikkonen back to the track in the afternoon session. Despite the KERS setback, the team was pleased with today's testing at Sakhir, as “the Team was able to experiment with an emergency in case of a KERS failure,” as reported on the Ferrari site. Raikkonen went on to set the fastest time of the day, 1:32.102.
BMW Sauber was the second of the three teams present in Bahrain to experience mechanical problems on Tuesday morning, as Nick Heidfeld's F1.09 “stopped on the track when a standard kill switch accidentally cut off the main electronic control unit and engaged the automatic fire extinguishing system”, reports BMW Sauber's site.
The German team was able to fix the problem in time so that Heidfeld could resume testing in the afternoon session. He eventually finished the day as the 3rd (and last) driver on the timing sheets, recording the best time of 1:32.585. He focused most of today's testing on mechanical set-up, trying various specifications of dampers and torsion bars.
Toyota's Jarno Trulli was the only driver to run a full mileage on Tuesday, as the Italian recorded the second best time of the day (1:32.230) in his second session this week. His testing was focused on set-up, tires and suspension of the TF109.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa, BMW's Heidfeld and Toyota's Timo Glock are expected to resume testing tomorrow.
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