Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRace weekend

Rosberg fastest as Mercedes sets blistering pace

Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of the first practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix as Mercedes was nearly two seconds clear of the rest of the field.

While the opening practice session is usually unrepresentative in Bahrain, overcast and cool conditions led to similar temperatures to those which will be seen on race day under floodlights. Mercedes wasted no time in putting down a marker at the start of the weekend, with Rosberg and team-mate Lewis Hamilton immediately jumping to the top of the times.

A run on soft tyres later in the opening session saw Rosberg set the pace with a 1:32.294, which left him half a second clear of Hamilton. However, it is the gap back to Kimi Raikkonen in third place which is ominous, as Raikkonen's best soft lap was still more than 1.8s slower than Rosberg.

Fourth quickest was Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull - over two seconds adrift of the quickest time - with Daniil Kvyat fifth, 0.1s behind his team-mate. It was a close field behind the Mercedes pair, with Raikkonen in third to Sebastian Vettel in 11th covered by less than a second.

Vettel was further down the times having only run the medium compound tyre throughout the first session, but the gap of 2.7s to Rosberg is a big one even at this early stage of the weekend.

Both Toro Rosso drivers set times inside the top eight while Romain Grosjean followed his impressive Haas debut in Australia with the ninth fastest time in FP1, four places and 0.3s ahead of team-mate Esteban Gutierrez.

Stoffel Vandoorne made a solid start to his debut grand prix weekend as he was within a second of team-mate Jenson Button on his first run in the McLaren. Vandoorne was four seconds off the overall pace in 18th, and made one slight error early on when he ran wide at Turn 11. The Belgian driver was receiving feedback from Fernando Alonso during FP1, having replaced the injured Spaniard at late notice this weekend.

Another driver making his FP1 debut was Alfonso Celis Jr in the Force India as he took over from Sergio Perez for the opening session. Celis was a full 2.6s slower than team-mate Nico Hulkenberg during first practice, with his confidence not helped by an excursion through the gravel at high speed early on after the rear of the car threatened to step out on him.

FP2 will take place under floodlights at 1800 local time, with the session starting at the same time as Sunday's race.

AS IT HAPPENED: FP1 from the Bahrain Grand Prix

Romain Grosjean's exclusive F1i column - Bahrain

RACE PREVIEW: Bahrain Grand Prix

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:32.294	24
02	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:32.799	24
03	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:34.128	16
04	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:34.461	27
05	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	1:34.541	30
06	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:34.601	28
07	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:34.793	21
08	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:34.860	19
09	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:35.000	18
10	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:35.006	19
11	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:35.073	14
12	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:35.174	21
13	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:35.309	19
14	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:35.440	28
15	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:35.190	27
16	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:35.728	30
17	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:36.371	26
18	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:36.392	25
19	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:36.719	24
20	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:36.939	28
21	Alfonso Celis	Force India	1:37.287	23
22	Rio Haryanto	Manor	1:37.714	27

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.