Lack of wet weather tyres limited teams’ running on Tuesday

At the first day of the Bahrain test, there were several hours of unexpected rain which prevented any running from the teams. This was down to no teams bringing suitable tyres, leaving them no option but to wait for the track to dry.

Not one of the ten teams selected any intermediate or wet tyres for the test because Bahrain usually only sees 10mm of rainfall over the entirety of April.

However, there was perhaps a warning sign on Sunday, where a few drops of rain fell before the race.

“The rain was a bit of a surprise,” admitted Mercedes’ chief race engineer Andrew Shovlin. “It wasn’t forecast but ended up costing us four or five hours of our programme.

“We selected the tyres for this test back in December and not expecting rain, we chose only dry tyres. So, once the track was properly wet we didn’t have any option but to wait for it to dry again.”

Williams' senior race engineer, Dave Robson added: “It was a very frustrating day for everyone here in Bahrain. Conditions first thing this morning looked reasonable following the dust clouds yesterday and some overnight rain.

“However, some further rain meant that little happened between mid-morning and early evening when conditions improved again.

"We were able to complete some aero testing early in the morning with George, concentrating on data gathering with the rake instrumentation. We then started a performance programme before the rain came.”

The forecast for the second day of the test is looking to be dry, and as always you can follow live updates here on GPToday.net.