Russian driver Vitaly Petrov hailed his Caterham team's performance at a troubled Grand Prix practice in Bahrain on Friday.
Vitaly Petrov posted his best free practice result of 2012 to come 16th in the time charts in the second session, beating his teammate Heikki Kovalainen and Williams’ Bruno Senna with a time of 1 minute 35.913 seconds.
In all three previous races of the year the Russian finished in 19th place, each time more than a second off the pace required to reach the second session of qualifying.
Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg topped the time charts in the second session, followed by Red Bull duo Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.
"It's been a good day for us," Petrov told Caterham's website. "We completed a decent number of laps in both sessions and I've been happy with the car all day."
He said the desert conditions would take their toll on tires.
"It's going to be tough on the tires on Sunday, on both compounds, but we looked pretty good on the softs on the performance run and we have a couple of changes we can try tomorrow to get the most out of the primes, so I think we're looking good."
With Bahrain troubled by civil unrest, Force India decided not to run in the second session in order to reach their hotel before dark. A team vehicle narrowly missed a volley of petrol bombs Thursday, in a reminder of the country's ongoing clashes between the government and protestors.
The Sauber team also reported fleeing unrest Thursday when one of their rental cars encountered a burning bottle in the road and a group of masked men, but chose to run in the second session.
