Free Practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Friday yielded some mixed results between the two sessions with Ferrari ultimately getting the edge and looking the stronger team at the end of the day.

Free Practice 1

Daniel Ricciardo was the man on top of the time sheets at the end of FP1 with a session best time of 1:31.060. Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes was 0.304s down in P2 with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen a further 0.398s off the pace.

Going into the session it looked like it would be a Mercedes-Ferrari battle, but Daniel Ricciardo getting into the mix shows that Red Bull are knocking on the door.

The session, which takes place during the day while qualifying and the race is in the evening, was not representative of the performance of the teams, which meant that teams were not in a hurry to get out until much later in the session.

While Ricciardo set the fastest time of the session, his team mate Max Verstappen had electrical issues after two laps. The Dutchman managed to get the car to the edge of the pit lane and pushed it back into the pits with the help of the marshals.

The mid-field battle looked extremely close with Romain Grosjean in the Haas leading the pack in 7th ahead of Pierre Gasly in the upgraded Toro Rosso in 8th. Carlos Sainz in the Renault.

Spins from Williams Lance Stroll and Sauber’s Charles Leclerc capped off uneventful sessions for the pair.

INITIAL CLASSIFICATION (END OF FP1)

Three different teams in the top three 👀#F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/9OsqzzVMgK

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 6, 2018

Free Practice 2

Ferrari emerged from the second free practice session in the evening as the strongest running team with Kimi Raikkonen topping the time sheets narrowly edging Ferrari team mate Sebastian Vettel by 0.011s. Bottas in the Mercedes was 0.563 off the pace. The fastest times for the top three was set on the red banded super soft tyre, a tyre that the Mercedes cars did not seem comfortable on while the Ferrari’s on the other hand seemed solid.

Lewis Hamilton finished 4th fastest 0.655s off Raikkonen’s pace ahead of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo in 5th and 6th respectively.

Nico Hulkenberg who complained about the balance of his Renault ended his session 7th fastest ahead of the upgraded Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly.

Both McLaren’s finished in the top 10 with Fernando Alonso finishing 9th ahead of team mate Stoffel Vandoorne.

The long run pace between Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull looks very closely matched. It looks like strategy could be the only differentiator come race day for victory – with a bit of luck thrown in for good measure.

Just 15mins before the end of the session, Raikkonen had to pull over after one of his wheels was not fastened properly. The team was fined €5000 for their transgression.

The Haas boys finished a little lower down the order while the Force India pair ended up higher up the order.

The teams go into Saturday’s final practice session very closely matched with Ferrari slightly edging ahead.

INITIAL CLASSIFICATION (END OF #FP2)

Kimi takes the top spot – but has to park up early due to a loose wheel#F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/JzmYNHDcQb

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 6, 2018

Photo by courtesy Pirelli