After winter testing featured rain and below average temperatures, today’s hot conditions saw the Scuderia Ferrari team’s work program over the three hours of free practice here at the Sakhir circuit focussed mainly on assessing the behaviour of the F10 and the two types of tyre brought here by Bridgestone.

“We had set ourselves an agenda based on preparation for Sunday’s race and we are pleased with what we have seen so far,” commented Stefano Domenicali. “Even more so than in the past, it is difficult to get an idea of the pecking order on Friday, because the fuel levels of the cars during these three hours of running can vary quite considerably. Now, we must try and prepare as well as possible for tomorrow’s qualifying, which will be difficult and closely contested for a variety of reasons, without losing sight of the fact that the points are only handed out on Sunday afternoon.”

Fernando Alonso, who made his race weekend debut for the team, finished ninth overall at the end of the day and while he is confident that he has a strong car beneath him, the double world champion is only too aware that there could be a few dark horses in the field come tomorrow’s qualifying session.

“A slightly different Friday to usual for me, as it was the first one with my new team. We concentrated mainly on comparing the two types of tyre, so as to be as well prepared as possible for the race on Sunday, trying to get a car that performs consistently over a long run. Obviously, with such high temperatures, tyre degradation was more rapid, especially with the rears,” he explained.

“From what we could see, the indications we got from testing have been confirmed, with four teams that you could describe as favourites, although there could yet be a few surprises, Force India for example. The new track is not bad: it is fun, even if there are a few too many bumps which I hadn’t spotted when I inspected it by bicycle.”

Meanwhile, teammate Felipe Massa was making his race return after being sidelined for the second half of the 2009 season and despite feeling a little under the weather, the Brazilian finished two places higher up on the ladder in seventh at the end of the day. Like Alonso, Massa is well aware that there is a lot of tough completion out there but he is confident they will be ready.

“We worked a lot on finding the right balance on the car in race trim and on comparing the two types of tyre, running with various fuel levels, although never going for a quick time. I am quite happy with what we have seen today, even if it is difficult to get an accurate picture of how competitive we are compared to the others,” he said.

“We will definitely face stiff competition from many teams, but we were preparing as well as possible for Sunday’s race and tomorrow morning, we will work on qualifying. I’ve got a bit of a temperature today, but I feel 100% for this start to the season.”