Cooler temperatures at Sakhir creating tyre challenges for teams
Monday 4 April 2016 14:36, UK
Nico Rosberg believes the Bahrain GP could be full of "surprises", despite Mercedes' ominous performance in Friday practice.
The world champions enjoyed one of their most commanding starts to a race weekend at Sakhir with the team's end-of-day advantage on the timesheet over a second as Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton finished first and second respectively in both practice sessions.
However, while Ferrari almost certainly underperformed on Friday, all teams also had to grapple with higher than expected levels of tyre degradation on long runs with weather conditions in the Middle East proving cooler than anticipated.
What time is Bahrain GP on Sky?
And with three tyre compounds now available to use in races, Rosberg told Sky F1: "There could be a few surprises in the race, for sure.
"With the tyres, there are so many different strategies you can do. Also if there is a safety car or something - there can be lots of surprises."
Mercedes have just one set of the hardest available tyre compound for the weekend - the mediums - which Pirelli mandate must be held back for Sunday's race.
"That could be challenging for us because the colder temperatures destroy the tyres much more," added Rosberg. "We don't regret it, but let's see. It's going to be more difficult."
Team-mate Hamilton, however, is comfortable with Mercedes' tyre allocation.
"So far we've got the right amount of tyres," the world champion said. "We've got one set of mediums, I think my team have done a great job and we've made the right choice."
After losing out to Rosberg at the Australian GP season opener, Hamilton was outpaced by the German in both of Friday's practice sessions with his deficit to his team-mate two tenths of a second in P2.
"One of the tenths is in the last corner, I just got a bit of traffic, but Nico is generally very quick here so I've just got to keep working on the balance," said Hamilton. "Otherwise the car's been going well."
