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.

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