Sauber Petronas drivers Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve ended the opening practice sessions of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend in 17th and 20th respectively.
The team are aiming to find the right tyre choice for the remainder of the weekend as they hope to score their first points in what is turning into a most difficult season. The team do however claim the C24 is more competitive than it was in Malaysia two weeks ago.
Felipe Massa
"We worked purely on setting the car up today, and considering our strategy in relation to others', I am encouraged. We are closer than it looks from the lap times, and much stronger than we were in Sepang."
Jacques Villeneuve
"The car feels much better than it did in Malaysia and I did a lot more laps with it working properly than I was able to there. I know that we can work further on it to keep improving throughout the weekend."
Willy Rampf, Technical Director
"Today we concerned ourselves wholly with race preparation and tyre evaluation, and did not therefore do low-fuel runs. We have amassed a lot of data for analysis before we make our tyre choice for the remainder of the weekend, and so far we are satisfied with our programme."

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