(Williams F1 Team via Twitter)
Felipe Massa continued the Williams F1 Team's great winter testing form at the Bahrain International Circuit today as the Brazilian topped the timesheets in his FW36 with a fastest time of 1m 33.258s to finish just ahead of Mercedes AMG F1's Nico Rosberg who, despite a late start to the session managed to rack up over 100 laps in the W05.
Kimi Raikkonen, who was conducting his last day of Winter testing for Ferrari had a start to the day however, the Finn managed to complete a race simulation in the F14T and finished up his Bahrain test in third place with a best time of 1m 35.426s he finished the day just ahead of McLaren's Kevin Magnussen who put in another solid day of running for the Woking based team.
Daniil Kvyat gave Toro Rosso and Renault something to smile about early on in the session as he topped the times briefly, it was the first time a Renault powered car had topped the times during testing as the manufacturer as suffered a number of problems during pre-season. Kvyat eventually finished the day in 5th place.
After leading the field on Thursday and Friday Force India had to settle for a midfield position today as Nico Hulkenberg finished the day in 6th place in the VJM07 however the new car looks very quick and reliable so far and there is still one day to go so they may very well find themselves at the top of the class tomorrow.
Marussia's Jules Bianchi was 7th fastest for the Banbury based team and they were extremely encouraged by their performance yesterday and they appear to be ahead of Caterham at this stage of winter testing.
Marcus Ericsson was next up for Caterham. The Swedish driver conducted some good running today however he finished the day 4.8s behind Felipe Massa.
It was another difficult day for the Lotus F1 Team as Romain Grosjean finished test programme early due to an unspecified problem with the E22. The Frenchman was the last driver to set a time as neither Sauber nor Red Bull Racing completed any running today.
Red Bull Racing's team principal Cristian Horner once again denied that Sebastian Vettel had a 'hissy fit' in Jerez. The team struggled with the RB10 yet again today and Horner said that the team are currently 10 day's behind in their programme from where they would like to be. Sebatian Vettel could only manage four corners of the Sakhir circuit this morning before his car came to a halt. When he eventually managed to get back out the car came to a stop again this time in the pitlane. It is certainly worrying times for the reigning world champions who with just one day left of winter testing have an awful lot of work to do overnight.
Pre-season testing concludes tomorrow with exactly two week's to go until lights in Melbourne Australia it is anyone's guess as to who will take the first victory of the season.
©Ben Johnston 2014
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