Kolles proud of Hispania's start

Hispania boss Colin Kolles congratulated his crew on getting through its first Formula 1 practice day after its race to make it to Bahrain.Only Bruno Senna was able to get out on track as Karun Chandhok's car was not ready - and although Senna completed 17 laps in second practice, he was 11.5s off the pace and had to park with a rear end problem at the end of the afternoon session.However Kolles said that in the circumstances just being in Bahrain was a triumph."I am proud that our mechanics and engineers managed to make history today in Bahrain," he said."Everything is going to plan, except the lack of sleep for all of us who worked through the night!"The focus today for the team was to be operational and run. "We are taking things one step at a time, and building on our competitiveness as the weekend and season goes on."Everyone has produced an amazing effort to make it happen and I would like to thank everyone for their dedication."Senna agreed that things were going well considering the team's fraught build-up, and said that today's tentative pace did not reflect Hispania's true speed."The car ran as planned and everyone is happy and proud," he said."Three laps this morning and seventeen this afternoon is a great start."Of course, we could not try the car at its limits."Chandhok also remained upbeat and optimistic that he can quickly get up to speed tomorrow despite missing the first two sessions."We know that all systems are working and with the third free practice still ahead of us we can still look positively at the start of our first weekend of racing," he said.See also:Glock finds Virgin glitches frustratingLotus pleased with 'respectable' start