Mercedes racer fastest in first practice

The Mercedes racers once again won the title of the fastest when they won their first free practice before the Bahrain Grand Prix by more than a second. Leading Nico Rosberg was half a second faster than teammate Lewis Hamilton. The closest follower Kimi Raikkonen accumulated a second and eight tenths after Rosberg's time. It also separated the racers between third and fourteenth place for about a second and eight tenths, so the middle of the starting line is much more compact.

The top five was completed by Red Bull racers, Daniel Ricciardo ahead of Daniil Kvyat. Ricciardo was the first of the non-Mercedes racers to drop below the 30s mark in the first sector. A good pace was again indicated by Toro Rosso. Carlos Sainz finished seventh and Max Verstappen a place lower. The Red Bulls and their subsidiary team were separated by Nico Hulkenberg in Force India. Haas racer Romain Grosjean, declared the race car racer in Melbourne, proved himself again, this time bringing the race car to ninth place. Stoffel Vandoorne as a replacement for Fernando Alonso finished eighteenth in his inaugural performance. McLaren's teammate and regular racer, Jenson Button, slipped to fourteenth place after several excellent laps, when he was even third in the standings, with a checkered flag.

The racers started on the track right at the beginning and in the first thirty minutes the track was full. Of the medium and soft versions, most used the former. We saw some mistakes, consequently off the track, blocked wheels, but nothing drastic. Some teams practiced boxing stops in the final minutes.

City	Racer	The team	Hour	Lag	Circles
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1m32.294s	-	24
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m32.799s	0.505s	24
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1m34.128s	1.834s	16
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull / TAG Heuer	1m34.461s	2.167s	27
5	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull / TAG Heuer	1m34.541s	2.247s	30
6	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India / Mercedes	1m34.601s	2.307s	28
7	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso / Ferrari	1m34.793s	2.499s	21
8	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso / Ferrari	1m34.860s	2.566s	19
9	Romain Grosjean	Haas / Ferrari	1m35.000s	2.706s	18
10	Felipe Massa	Williams / Mercedes	1m35.006s	2.712s	19
11	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1m35.073s	2.779s	14
12	Valtteri Bottas	Williams / Mercedes	1m35.174s	2.880s	21
13	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas / Ferrari	1m35.309s	3.015s	19
14	Jenson Button	McLaren / Honda	1m35.440s	3.146s	28
15	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1m35.490s	3.196s	27
16	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber / Ferrari	1m35.728s	3.434s	30
17	pascal wehrlein	Manor / Mercedes	1m36.371s	4.077s	26
18	Stoffel vandoorne	McLaren / Honda	1m36.392s	4.098s	25
19	Felipe Nasr	Sauber / Ferrari	1m36.719s	4.425s	24
20	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1m36.939s	4.645s	28
21	Alfonso Celis	Force India / Mercedes	1m37.287s	4.993s	23
22	Haryanto River	Manor / Mercedes	1m37.714s	5.420s	27