Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo opened the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend on top as he clocked the quickest time during the first practice session on Friday afternoon.
In hot and overcast conditions at Sakhir, Ricciardo moved ahead during the final part of the session with a lap of 1:31.060 on the Soft tyres.
Mercedes had used the Softs to run 1-2, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Valtteri Bottas, before Haas’ Romain Grosjean utilised the Supersofts to go fastest overall.
Bottas stormed clear on his next run – still on Softs – to sit nine-tenths clear of Hamilton, though Ferrari pair Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel closed in.
Bottas’ time looked set to be quick enough to top proceedings until Ricciardo jumped ahead of the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers, his margin over Bottas a comfortable 0.304s.
Finns Bottas and Raikkonen followed, with Vettel fourth, leaving Hamilton a low-key fifth, off the pace of his rivals following a moment through Turn 4.
Grosjean reinforced Haas’ strong Melbourne pace with sixth overall, as Pierre Gasly finished an encouraging seventh for Toro Rosso, his STR13 equipped with new Honda components after his race retirement two weeks ago.
Renault present and past completed the top 10, with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen sandwiching the manufacturer’s current drivers Carlos Sainz Jr. and Nico Hulkenberg.
Fernando Alonso was the lead McLaren driver in 11th, ahead of Sauber rookie Charles Leclerc, who recovered from a spin through Turn 7 to wind up 12th.
Stoffel Vandoorne took 13th, while Williams’ Lance Stroll made a similar error to Leclerc en route to 14th spot; his team-mate Sergey Sirotkin placed 15th.
Brendon Hartley and Marcus Ericsson were next up in 16th and 17th, ahead of Force India pair Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon, who ran early on Supersofts before switching to the Medium compound tyres.
As one Red Bull driver led proceedings, the other had a dismal start to his weekend.
Max Verstappen's RB14 suffered a loss of power due to an electrical fault a mere five minutes into the session and crawled to a halt exiting the final corner.
Verstappen, with the aid of some marshals, was able to wheel his car back to the pit lane, but he did not take any further part in the session.
Friday’s second 90-minute practice session is scheduled for 18:00 local time
