» Hamilton tops first practice in Bahrain

Mercedes have again asserted their dominance on the opening practice session in Bahrain, with Lewis Hamilton taking top honours two tenths clear of team-mate Nico Rosberg.

There were troubling signs early on in the session for Mercedes, as Rosberg reported lack of power which eventually saw him pit for repairs to electronics. However their concerns were put to rest as he was back out on track after 30 minutes.

Front running teams opted to run less laps as the session was run during the afternoon in Bahrain’s heat. The higher temperatures meant higher risks for the engines, which wasn’t worth jeopardising as the current conditions weren’t reflective of race conditions, which will be held in much cooler temperatures at night.

Ferrari was probably the biggest talking point of the session, although not for the right reasons. It wasn’t poor lap times or a crash that raised fans’ eyebrows, but an embarrassing mistake in the pits which saw Alonso make it halfway down pit lane only to realise he had three medium compound tyres and one soft tyre on his front left.

He duly stopped and his mechanics had the humiliating task of running after the car to wheel it back to the garage.

Caterham reserve driver Robin Frijns made his debut for the team and made the most of his time on track, completing more laps than any driver in the session with 35. He was 0.3 seconds faster than Caterham’s Marcus Ericsson, who completed 21 laps.

Jean-Eric Vergne and Max Chilton had troubles with their energy recovery systems, with Vergne describing it as the worst session he’s had for a long time. Both drivers reported loss of energy over one lap.

2014 Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix – Free Practice 1 Results:

	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05	1:37.502		14
2.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05	1:37.733	+ 0.231	13
3.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F14T	1:37.953	+ 0.451	17
4.	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07	1:38.122	+ 0.620	10
5.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-29	1:38.636	+ 1.134	16
6.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari F14T	1:38.783	+ 1.281	12
7.	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren Mercedes MP4-29	1:38.949	+ 1.447	15
8.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9	1:39.056	+ 1.554	24
9.	Sergio Pérez	Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07	1:39.102	+ 1.600	21
10.	Sebastian Vettel	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10	1:39.389	+ 1.887	16
11.	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36	1:39.533	+ 2.031	11
12.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9	1:39.862	+ 2.360	26
13.	Felipe Nasr	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36	1:40.078	+ 2.576	14
14.	Daniel Ricciardo	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10	1:40.406	+ 2.904	19
15.	Adrian Sutil	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33	1:40.652	+ 3.150	20
16.	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus F1 Team Renault E22	1:40.793	+ 3.291	31
17.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03	1:40.889	+ 3.387	20
18.	Giedo van der Garde	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33	1:40.913	+ 3.411	20
19.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team Renault E22	1:41.036	+ 3.534	24
20.	Max Chilton	Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03	1:41.794	+ 4.292	20
21.	Robin Frijns	Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05	1:42.417	+ 4.915	35
22.	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05	1:42.711	+ 5.209	21