Mercedes make impressive start as Rosberg outpaces Hamilton by 0.5s; Ferrari run different programme; Vandoorne 18th on F1 debut
Monday 4 April 2016 14:37, UK
Nico Rosberg picked up from where he left off with his race win in Australia by leading the way from Lewis Hamilton in Practice One at the Bahrain GP.
In the first dry Friday practice session of the new season, Rosberg outpaced his Mercedes team-mate by an unusually large margin - half a second after Hamilton locked up on his flying lap.
The world champions' impressive out-of-the-box pace was such that Rosberg's 1:32.294 time on soft tyres was over two tenths of a second quicker than the teams' pole-winning lap on the same compound from last year.
Ferrari finished third but lead runner Kimi Raikkonen was 1.9 seconds adrift of Rosberg's benchmark on the same tyres.
However, with the Scuderia running under the radar for most of the session as they first ran on medium tyres, that is highly unlikely to be Mercedes' pace advantage come a qualifying hour on Saturday which takes place in cooler evening conditions.
Sebastian Vettel did not use the soft tyres at all, instead using two of the three medium sets he has selected for the weekend. The German wound up 11th as a result.
After an encouraging start to the season in Melbourne, Red Bull finished fourth and fifth with Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat - although Force India, Toro Rosso and newcomers Haas were also within striking range.
McLaren reserve Stoffel Vandoorne made his F1 race weekend debut in P1, the Belgian stepping up to a race seat this weekend after Fernando Alonso was ruled out through injury on Thursday following his huge Melbourne accident.
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Vandoorne only arrived in the Middle East on Friday morning after an overnight flight from Japan and, driving the MP4-31 on track for the first time, he wrecked his first ever timed lap by outbraking himself and running off the circuit.
The reigning GP2 champion eventually finished 18th, four places and nine tenths of a second adrift of team-mate Jenson Button. That is a pace gap Vandoorne will now look to close over the rest of the weekend, with McLaren having also used his first practice session to go through procedural work such as practice pit stops.
Vandoorne was joined on his race weekend debut by Force India test driver Alfonso Celis, who will take part in a number of P1 sessions for the team during the season.
Although the Mexican twice drove the VJM09 in pre-season, Celis endured a difficult baptism in Bahrain and eventually finished five seconds off the pace in 21st place after a session which included a lurid slide across one of the track's sandy gravel traps.
Practice One timesheet
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:32.294
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:32.799
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:34.128
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:34.461
5. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1:34.541
6. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:34.601
7. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:34.793
8. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1:34.860
9. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 1:35.000
10. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:35.006
11. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:35.073
12. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:35.174
13. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas, 1:35.309
14. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:35.440
15. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1:35.490
16. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:35.728
17. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor, 1:36.371
18. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, 1:36.392
19. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1:36.719
20. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1:36.939
21. Alfonso Celis, Force India, 1:37.287
22. Rio Haryanto, Manor, 1:37.714
