Red Bull ended the first practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix with one car at the top of the times and the other at the bottom.
Daniel Ricciardo set the quickest lap time during the first 90 minutes of running. But Max Verstappen spent almost the entire session in the garage after his car failed on its installation lap.
Lap times improved quickly in hot conditions at the Bahrain International Circuit, with track temperatures peaking at 40C. Ricciardo was the last of the front-running drivers to set a time and dislodged Valtteri Bottas from the top spot by three-tenths of a second.
The Mercedes driver was followed closely by the Ferrari pair, Kimi Raikkonen narrowly out-pacing Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton was almost a second off his team mate after a scruffy initial lap on soft tyres.
Romain Grosjean put his Haas sixth quickest and was the highest driver on the times sheets who set his lap time on super-soft tyres. However Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly owed his seventh place to a particularly good run on the soft tyres. Kevin Magnussen in the second Haas and the Renault pair completed the top 10.
Charles Leclerc was 12th-fastest Sauber despite suffering a spin at turn seven. He also had to pit to correct his steering wheel position which was out of alignment.
Moments before Leclerc’s spin, Lance Stroll committed the same error. He ended the session as the fastest of the two William drivers.
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’31.060 | 14 | |
| 2 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’31.364 | 0.304 | 24 |
| 3 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’31.458 | 0.398 | 18 |
| 4 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’31.470 | 0.410 | 17 |
| 5 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’32.272 | 1.212 | 21 |
| 6 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’32.516 | 1.456 | 23 |
| 7 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’32.779 | 1.719 | 26 |
| 8 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 1’32.885 | 1.825 | 21 |
| 9 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’32.971 | 1.911 | 19 |
| 10 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’33.104 | 2.044 | 18 |
| 11 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Renault | 1’33.223 | 2.163 | 24 |
| 12 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’33.278 | 2.218 | 20 |
| 13 | 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Renault | 1’33.364 | 2.304 | 25 |
| 14 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’33.379 | 2.319 | 22 |
| 15 | 35 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes | 1’33.467 | 2.407 | 29 |
| 16 | 28 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’33.497 | 2.437 | 27 |
| 17 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’33.508 | 2.448 | 22 |
| 18 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’33.662 | 2.602 | 26 |
| 19 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’33.794 | 2.734 | 23 |
| 20 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer |
First practice visual gaps
Daniel Ricciardo – 1’31.060
+0.304 Valtteri Bottas – 1’31.364
+0.398 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’31.458
+0.410 Sebastian Vettel – 1’31.470
+1.212 Lewis Hamilton – 1’32.272
+1.456 Romain Grosjean – 1’32.516
+1.719 Pierre Gasly – 1’32.779
+1.825 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’32.885
+1.911 Kevin Magnussen – 1’32.971
+2.044 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’33.104
+2.163 Fernando Alonso – 1’33.223
+2.218 Charles Leclerc – 1’33.278
+2.304 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’33.364
+2.319 Lance Stroll – 1’33.379
+2.407 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’33.467
+2.437 Brendon Hartley – 1’33.497
+2.448 Marcus Ericsson – 1’33.508
+2.602 Sergio Perez – 1’33.662
+2.734 Esteban Ocon – 1’33.794
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
2018 Bahrain Grand Prix
- Three errors caused Ferrari’s botched Bahrain pit stop which injured a mechanic
- Verstappen not to blame for Bahrain qualifying crash – Horner
- Steiner warns against knee-jerk reaction to pit lane safety fears
- Ferrari explains why Raikkonen’s pit stop went wrong
- Problems in first two races not down to bad luck – Raikkonen
Sviat
6th April 2018, 13:45
Both McLarens were very nervous in braking zones. We’ll see if they fix the issues in the second practice.
Todfod (@todfod)
6th April 2018, 14:03
They didn’t look particularly impressive. Haas and Renault both looked better balanced and quicker overall. It is just FP1 though, generally FP2 has conditions that are more representative.
GeeMac (@geemac)
6th April 2018, 13:51
Was there any mention of why only Alonso’s car was running the new sidepod turning vane? Can’t see any mention of it anywhere.
Todfod (@todfod)
6th April 2018, 14:05
That Red Bull was mighty in Sector 2. I think they were 4 tenths quicker than the Ferraris in that sector alone.
Patrick (@anunaki)
6th April 2018, 14:12
Max was clearly pushing his car too hard again.
bobec
6th April 2018, 14:32
You get an electrical problem by pushing your car too hard?
Patrick (@anunaki)
6th April 2018, 14:37
It’s a joke
he was pushing his car back to the pits and people were saying this last year when he had his stroke of bad luck
GeeMac (@geemac)
6th April 2018, 14:40
Subtle, clever jokes don’t work on the internet. :)
@HoHum (@hohum)
6th April 2018, 22:37
@geemac, but I still like them, this one made me smile, maybe because I had read he had to push it back to the pits.
bobec
6th April 2018, 20:24
Oh, that’s actually good. If i had only seen footage of him pushing his car….
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
6th April 2018, 14:56
7-17 within a second. Crazy.
Francorchamps (@francorchamps17)
6th April 2018, 15:05
@ruliemaulana yeah that’s the first thing I noticed! There are no backmackers this year, only a top 3 and a midfield. Interesting as it will make the role of the drivers very important.
tonyyeb (@tonyyeb)
6th April 2018, 15:06
@ruliemaulana Just a shame it isn’t 1-17.
TopGT
6th April 2018, 15:31
did you mean 7-19 ?
btof
6th April 2018, 15:32
@keithcollantine Would it be hard to add a visualization for the scale of the x axis in this graph? For example with seconds (eyeballed) like this: https://imgur.com/a/oCPvP Maybe half or quater seconds make more sense? Or maybe being able to drag your mouse horizontally which would show the time for that distance? :)
mmertens (@mmertens)
6th April 2018, 17:36
It might still be too soon but I’m happy for Sauber, they are finally showing enough progress to fight for midfield. Charles impressed me on first round, it looks he will do the same this round