Bahrain – Free Practice 1: Hamilton and Mercedes Bring the Heat

The Bahrain Grand Prix will be held under the stars, but it was indeed the sun that greeted the drivers for these first free practice sessions with an air temperature of 24 degrees and 46 on the track. In the middle of the desert, the wind could disrupt the teams by bringing a lot of sand onto the track. A new factor that will have its influence this weekend.

The session begins and quickly we witness various installation laps before the drivers return to the pits again. On Nico Rosberg’s side, a loss of power from the Mercedes unit is observed in the early minutes.

Jenson Button is the first to start the clock after 10 minutes have passed in this session. The Briton, who will make his 250th start this weekend, returns to the pits before crossing the finish line again. Still no times, therefore.

We will have to wait for Robin Frijns at the wheel of the Caterham to get a 1:45.483 time. At Williams, it’s Felipe Nasr who will be on track instead of Bottas for this session, while at Sauber, Giedo Van der Garde will also be participating.

For Romain Grosjean, the lack of rear-end grip is a problem in the last half hour. The Frenchman is using an entirely white helmet for this nighttime Grand Prix.

After the first 30 minutes it is the two Mercedes that occupy the front of the hierarchy. Lewis Hamilton leads Nico Rosberg with a time of 1:38.395.

The following minutes are very calm on the track. The drivers are talking with their engineers before getting back into the car. On the Red Bull side, the top of the rear wing is being manually cut, presumably to gain top speed.

At mid-session, Lewis Hamilton has not been dislodged from his first place. At Ferrari, Fernando Alonso tries to get back on track, but his outing is short-lived as his car comes to a complete stop in the pit lane. It turns out that the tires are not homogeneous, with three medium tires and one soft tire, which is not allowed.

Little action in the second half-hour of this opening session of the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix of Formula 1. The top three are composed of Hamilton, Rosberg, and Hülkenberg, while Massa finally takes to the track.

While at Lotus the E22 runs like clockwork, even if it doesn’t set the stopwatch on fire, at Ferrari they are changing the floor of Kimi Räikkönen’s car.

After the Dremel, it’s the paintbrush that’s out at Red Bull. The rear wing of Vettel’s RB10 will be coated with green paint to analyze the airflow in that area.

Things liven up a bit in the last 15 minutes with Alonso’s best time of 1:37.953 in his Ferrari. Nico Hülkenberg also places ahead of the Mercedes before Nico Rosberg crosses the line in 1:37.733. Time is then improved by Lewis Hamilton a few moments later, with a 1:37.502 for the Australian Grand Prix winner.

At the end of this first practice session, it is Lewis Hamilton who emerges as the fastest ahead of his teammate Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso.

Free Practice 1 Classification for the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix: