Sebastian Vettel led the way in a scorching opening Formula 1 practice session in Bahrain.
With temperatures peaking at nearly 40 degrees Celsius, the cars were put to their maximum in dealing with the desert heat.
After the initial runs on the medium tyres were out of the way, Vettel stormed to the top of the timesheets displaying Force India’s Sergio Perez by 1.398s on a 1m32.697s.
Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen’s session did not go to plan after suffering a turbo problem with 55 minutes remaining on the clock ultimately ended the session in last place, nearly 10 seconds off the pace.
Both Red Bulls went fastest of anyone in the first sector on their respective laps but were unable to beat Vettel’s benchmark. Daniel Ricciardo was four-tenths in second while Verstappen was a further four-tenths off his team-mate.
Sergio Perez led the tight midfield pack in fourth, just two-tenths separating the Force Indias, Williams’ and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso.
Felipe Massa suffered some sort of brake issues in the final five minutes, resulting in a spin at Turn 13.
Romain Grosjean was a solid ninth ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who set their best times earlier than most.
Daniil Kvyat was two seconds off in 11th ahead of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg.
Stoffel Vandoorne stopped out on the circuit which appeared to be another Honda engine issue.
Pascal Wehrlein was back in the Sauber after sitting out the Chinese Grand Prix last week and ended FP1 just less than a tenth behind team-mate Marcus Ericsson.
Conditions in FP2 will be similar to that of qualifying and the race which will give us a clearer picture of who has the speed around Bahrain.
