Bahrain GP: Rosberg leads as Mercedes sets ominous FP1 pace

The Australian Grand Prix winner posted a best lap of 1:32.294 using soft tyres to finish over half a second clear of teammate Lewis Hamilton, second quickest.

Rosberg's time was over five seconds faster than the benchmark set during FP1 in last year's event.

Kimi Raikkonen was the fastest of the non-Mercedes drivers in third, but the Ferrari man finished over 1.8 seconds behind Rosberg.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was over two seconds off the pace in fourth, ahead of teammate Daniil Kvyat.

Force India's Nico Hulkenberg finished in sixth, the German followed by Toro Rosso drivers Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen.

Romain Grosjean continued to show promise in the Haas, posting the ninth fastest time ahead of Williams' Felipe Massa.

Sebastian Vettel finished 11th in the second Ferrari, nearly three seconds off Rosberg's pace.

Stoffel Vandoorne made his debut in a grand prix weekend after being drafted in to replace Fernando Alonso at McLaren.

The Belgian wound up 18th, nearly a second behind teammate Jenson Button.

Alfonso Celis was back in action in the Force India, replacing Sergio Perez for the first session. The Mexican took 21st.

It took nearly 15 minutes for the first driver to appear on the timesheets, when Pascal Wehrlein completed the first timed lap in the Manor.

Hamilton and Rosberg were the last men to take to the track - after the 15-minute mark - but the German was quick to move to the top of the times with a 1:33.592 on soft Pirelli tyres.

His teammate moved to second moments later, the Mercedes duo nearly two seconds clear of Button, their closest rival at that point.

It took until the final quarter of the session for a driver to get closer to the Mercedes pair, with Ricciardo jumping up to third position, 0.869s seconds off Rosberg's pace with a run on softs.

Ricciardo's teammate Kvyat also improved to move to fourth as the session entered the final 30 minutes.

With 20 minutes left, both Hamilton and Rosberg left the pits for another run of softs, and immediately went quicker, with the German lapping in 1:32.294, over half a second faster than his teammate, the only other driver in the 1:32s.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:32.294		24
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:32.799	+0.505	24
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:34.128	+1.834	16
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:34.461	+2.167	27
5	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing	1:34.541	+2.247	30
6	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:34.601	+2.307	28
7	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	1:34.793	+2.499	21
8	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:34.860	+2.566	19
9	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	1:35.000	+2.706	18
10	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:35.006	+2.712	19
11	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:35.073	+2.779	14
12	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:35.174	+2.880	21
13	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas F1 Team	1:35.309	+3.015	19
14	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:35.440	+3.146	28
15	Kevin Magnussen	Renault F1 Team	1:35.490	+3.196	27
16	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:35.728	+3.434	30
17	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor Racing MRT	1:36.371	+4.077	26
18	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:36.392	+4.098	25
19	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:36.719	+4.425	24
20	Jolyon Palmer	Renault F1 Team	1:36.939	+4.645	28
21	Alfonso Celis	Force India	1:37.287	+4.993	23
22	Rio Haryanto	Manor Racing MRT	1:37.714	+5.420	27