Raikkonen leads Ferrari 1-2 in first Bahrain practice

The times were hugely misleading, even by FP1 standards, with Mercedes opting to treat it as a test session so Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton ended down in 15^th and 16^th places respectively.

Raikkonen set his 1m37.827s with seven minutes remaining, two tenths ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel.

Valtteri Bottas was third fastest for Williams, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) and Max Verstappen in the second Toro Rosso.

Vettel had earlier set the fastest time 25 minutes into the session, but then reported a “sudden loss of power” and was told to slow down.

He toured back to the pits very slowly, getting out of the car on his return.

The problem recurred on his next run, although the team told him to stay out, and he went on to set the second-fastest time.

Low-grip track conditions

Following the recent sandstorm in Bahrain, and track conditions vastly different than those expected for qualifying and the race, most teams elected to treat this as more of a test session rather than a usual race-weekend data-gathering exercise.

Reigning champion Mercedes was a good indicator of this, as the team used its ‘free’ set of Pirelli tyres of the session very early in the opening 30 minutes, and did not run at all when the track was at its cleanest.

Hamilton and Rosberg went out on track together right from the start, with Rosberg suffering a degree of front locking on a very dusty circuit and high track temperatures of 52C.

Hamilton again complained of his “seat burning” during the middle part of the session. Mercedes was most likely using this session for hot-weather running data, following its defeat at the hands of Ferrari at Sepang.

More trouble at McLaren

Jenson Button spun to a halt his first flying lap at Turn 1 when his McLaren's Honda engine shut down due to an electrical issue, while Fernando Alonso required a pre-session technical fix to allow an engine pump shaft seal to be rectified.

"It was just an electrical issue, so the car shut down and it took us some time to understand it, and then it was too late to get back on track," said McLaren's Eric Boullier.

"We hope to be ready for P2."

Alonso briefly cheered the team when he went fastest in the session just after the halfway point. He slipped to seventh by the end, just 0.7s off the pace.

F1 - Bahrain GP 2015 - Free Practice 1

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
01	K. Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:37.827		13
02	S. Vettel	Ferrari	1:38.029	+0.202	12
03	V. Bottas	Williams	1:38.390	+0.563	23
04	C. Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:38.447	+0.620	14
05	D. Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:38.455	+0.628	17
06	M. Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:38.504	+0.677	22
07	F. Alonso	McLaren	1:38.598	+0.771	18
08	F. Nasr	Sauber	1:38.628	+0.801	17
09	D. Kvyat	Red Bull	1:38.661	+0.834	17
10	F. Massa	Williams	1:38.790	+0.963	21
11	S. Perez	Force India	1:38.793	+0.966	15
12	P. Maldonado	Lotus	1:38.842	+1.015	23
13	N. Hulkenberg	Force India	1:39.187	+1.360	20
14	J. Palmer	Lotus	1:39.283	+1.456	31
15	N. Rosberg	Mercedes	1:39.293	+1.466	23
16	L. Hamilton	Mercedes	1:39.532	+1.705	22
17	M. Ericsson	Sauber	1:39.534	+1.707	21
18	W. Stevens	Manor	1:42.973	+5.146	12
19	R. Merhi	Manor	1:44.265	+6.438	15
20	J. Button	McLaren	no time		2