2018 F1 Round 2 Bahrain GP FP1 — Ricciardo fastest, Gasly seventh

The second round of the 2018 F1 season began at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir on 6 April. With high daytime temperatures at the desert venue, opening practice focused on learning the grip level, braking points and car balance. Teams also had to distinguish the daytime data from the conditions expected for qualifying and the race at night.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo led the session with a 1:31.060, 0.304 seconds ahead of Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas in second. The Ferraris followed, with Kimi Räikkönen third and Sebastian Vettel fourth. Three leading teams supplied all four drivers at the top of the order.

Lewis Hamilton finished fifth, 1.212 seconds behind Ricciardo. The two Mercedes were second and fifth, while both Ferraris were in the top four. The daytime heat differed from the conditions expected for the night-time competitive sessions, limiting what this timesheet could reveal about qualifying pace.

Romain Grosjean took sixth for Haas, followed by Pierre Gasly in seventh. Gasly had components replaced before the session following a power-unit problem and still achieved a position towards the front of the midfield. His team-mate Brendon Hartley was sixteenth. Alongside its reliability preparations, Toro Rosso was evaluating new aerodynamic updates.

Renault’s Carlos Sainz and Nico Hülkenberg were eighth and tenth, with Haas driver Kevin Magnussen between them in ninth. The leading midfield positions were closely contested. Fernando Alonso, Charles Leclerc, Stoffel Vandoorne and Lance Stroll were all inside the top fourteen.

Max Verstappen completed only two laps without setting a valid time, leaving him last in the results table. Most other drivers completed between the teens and the high twenties in lap totals. Williams driver Sergey Sirotkin ran 29 laps, putting him among the busiest drivers in the session.

FP1 featured leading drivers from Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari. Ricciardo was fastest, Bottas followed closely and both Ferraris reached the top four. With temperatures changing markedly during the day, teams still needed to assess these data alongside the longer runs at night.

The table below follows F1’s official practice results and lists the best lap time or gap and lap total for all 20 drivers. Verstappen remains in the complete field despite not setting a timed lap. Gasly’s seventh place was a positive sign in opening practice, with car condition and track conditions still determining whether he could sustain that position.