Bahrain: BAR reign in free practice

Jenson in Bahrain
By Phil Huff (03/04/2004)
April 3 2004

Wow! Saturday practice has gone well, as the Lucky Strike BAR Honda team prepare for the qualifying sessions that decide the grid for Sundays race. Team leader Jenson Button topped the times in both sessions, throwing down the gauntlet to the other teams.

Finishing the first session just 0.059 seconds ahead of Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya, Jenson topped the time sheet with his first flying lap, setting the fastest first and second sectors of the day. His lap time of 1:30.062 left team mate Takuma Sato just over one second behind.

Not content with that, Jenson knocked another half second of his time in session two, extending the gap to second place to 0.138. This time it was the sister Williams of Ralf Schumacher behind our man, with Sato an encouraging fourth, but still 0.687s off the pace.

Qualifying for the race follows shortly.