Lewis Hamilton made an impressive start to the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend by topping the first practice times by over 0.2s on Friday morning at Sakhir.
The reigning world champion used a fresh set of medium compound tyres mid-way through the opening session to clock a time of 1m33.647s – an effort over half a second faster than any other driver managed on the same rubber.
Indeed the men in second and third on the timesheet, the KERS-equipped BMW duo of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica, had only got that high by dint of using the faster super-soft tyres for their final flying laps, vaulting up the order to finish under 0.3s down on Hamilton. ITV
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Another German, Nico Rosberg, was fourth for Williams ahead of championship-leading Briton Jenson Button and his Brawn GP team-mate Rubens Barrichello of Brazil.
Ferrari’s Brazilian driver Felipe Massa was eighth, Australian Mark Webber of Red Bull ninth and Finn Kimi Raikkonen, in the second Ferrari, 10th.
Chinese Grand Prix winner, Sebastian Vettel of Germany, in the second Red Bull, was down in 12th place and two-times world champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Renault was 18th.
After a slow start in the hot conditions, with a track temperature of 46 degrees Celsius and an air temperature of 34 degrees, the teams began to send out their cars and drivers for installation laps.
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As they settled down and began clocking decent times, Rosberg was fastest and stayed on top until mid-way through the 90-minutes session when Hamilton clocked the best lap. AFP
Kazuki Nakajima was 11th for Williams with 1m 34.880s, and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel (1m 34.938s) and Renault’s Nelson Piquet (1m 34.974s) completed the runners below 1m 35s.
Force India’s Adrian Sutil, Jarno Trulli in the Toyota and Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella were all close to breaking that, with 1m 35.021s, 1m 35.036s and 1m 35.042s respectively. Toyota’s Timo Glock was 17th on 1m 35.333s. Formula 1
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