Sakhir, FP1: Rosberg roars ahead in opening practice in Bahrain

Nico Rosberg went quickest in the first practice session for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand as Mercedes set blistering pace at the Sakhir circuit.

Rosberg, who leads the championship following victory at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix a fortnight ago, recorded a best lap of 1:32.294 using soft tyres to finish over half a second clear of team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Rosberg’s time was an impressive 1.8 seconds clear of his closest non-Mercedes rival, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who took P3 in the session with a time of 1:34.128, though that was set on the harder medium tyre. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was over two seconds off the pace in fourth, ahead of team-mate Daniil Kvyat.

The session got off to a slow start but with almost 15 minutes on the clock, Pascal Wehrlein became the first driver to set a time. The Manor driver sparked a steady stream of times with the Mercedes duo of Roberg and Hamilton being the last to take to the track. The pair didn’t need long to make their mark on the session and Rosberg was quickly up to P1 with a time on 1:33.592 set on soft tyres. Hamilton then slotted into P2 and the shape of the session thereafter was set.

The gap to their rivals remained much the same until the final part of the session when Ricciardo also used soft tyres to jump to third spot with his best lap of the session. He was followed by Kvyat but then the Mercedes pair emerged again, on the soft tyres, to power ahead of the pack. Just over 10 minutes from the end of the session, Raikkonen popped up with a good time on medium tyres to steal P3 from Ricciardo.

Behind Kvyat, Nico Hulkenberg was sixth for Force India, while Toro Rosso’s Carlos edged team-mate Max Verastappen to take P7 by just over six hundredths of a second. Romain Grosjean took ninth place for Haas ahead of Williams’ Felipe Massa.

Sebastian Vettel finished 11th in the second Ferrari, nearly three seconds off Rosberg’s pace, though the German set his best time on used medium tyres.

Elsewhere, Stoffel Vandoorne made his debut in a grand prix weekend after being drafted in to replace Fernando Alonso at McLaren after the Spaniard was forced to bow out of the event owing to injuries sustained in the first race in Melbourne. The Belgian wound up 18th, nearly a second behind team-mate Jenson Button.