Hamilton leads again a 1-2 for Mercees

Mercedes confirmed their advantage over the chasing pack in Bahrain on Friday where Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets.

Heading out 15 minutes into FP1, Hamilton hit the front ahead of Rosberg with the duo holding those positions as one by one their rivals ventured out.

It wasn’t long before most of the top 15 were back in the pits as not only did the drivers spend time at the Sakhir circuit during pre-season testing but the heat of the day meant the conditions were not relevant to what they would face in the evening qualifying and the grand prix.

Heading back out in the final 30 minutes, Fernando Alonso took the fight to the Mercedes drivers and temporarily took the P1 slot.

However, the Mercs returning to the action it was only a matter of time before Hamilton and Rosberg were back at the front.

The British driver’s 1:37.502 was the time to beat with Rosberg 0.231s adrift. Alonso was a further 0.220s behind.

Nico Hulkenberg was fourth quickest for Force India ahead of Jenson Button, Kimi Raikkonen and Kevin Magnussen.

The full results:

Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired Gap Laps
1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:37.502 14
2 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:37.733 0.231 13
3 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:37.953 0.451 17
4 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:38.122 0.620 10
5 22 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:38.636 1.134 16
6 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:38.783 1.281 12
7 20 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1:38.949 1.447 15
8 26 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault 1:39.056 1.554 24
9 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1:39.102 1.600 21
10 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:39.389 1.887 16
11 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:39.533 2.031 11
12 25 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault 1:39.862 2.360 26
13 40 Felipe Nasr Williams-Mercedes 1:40.078 2.576 14
14 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:40.406 2.904 19
15 99 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1:40.652 3.150 20
16 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1:40.793 3.291 31
17 17 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1:40.889 3.387 20
18 36 Giedo van der Garde Sauber-Ferrari 1:40.913 3.411 20
19 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:41.036 3.534 24
20 4 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1:41.794 4.292 20
21 46 Robin Frijns Caterham-Renault 1:42.417 4.915 35
22 9 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1:42.711 5.209 21

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