Ferrari ahead in first practice at Bahrain

F1 Grand Prix, GP Bahrain, Bahrain International Circuit

Sebastian Vettel was comfortably fastest in the first session of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend. He topped the Red Bull Racing duo led by Daniel Ricciardo. Force India and Williams battled it out for the next 4 positions on the timesheet.

A considerably upgraded Force India appeared well in the mix as Perez ended the session fourth fastest, ahead of both Williams and his own team mate.

Fernando Alonso set the 8th fastest time in the McLaren Honda, ahead of Romain Grosjean for Haas.

Relative speed is likely to change further into the weekend as the track improved massively throughout the session while dust was cleaned off due to running. Mercedes, who opted to do their soft tyre running early on in the session, were indeed initially quickest, but then rapidly overhauled as they focused on tyre evaluation.

For Kimi Raikkonen, the news was less positive, as his car came to a halt after just 6 laps. Following a few installation laps, he came to a halt before it really started, parking his car at Turn 10 with an overheated turbo.

Several others also had trouble with the heat that reached 40°, as Stoffel Vandoorne's car also stopped early with a suspected ERS issue. Felipe Massa had a spin following a "brake issue". At Renault, Jolyon Palmer struggled with intermittent MGU-K issues while team mate Nico Hulkenberg wasn't entirely happy with the balance of his car.

Running continues at 18:00 local time in FP2.