F1-EL1: Massa and Ferrari start strongly in Bahrain

With only one set of hard tires to use in the first session of the Bahrain Grand Prix, the drivers did not have many laps to set impressive times. There Team Ferrari patiently waited for the track to clear before launching its drivers. Felipe Massa was the fastest, achieving a time of 1’34”487, 77 thousandths ahead of his teammate. Fernando Alonso, victorious last Sunday in Shanghai. Nico Rosberg was the closest to the Ferraris, failing one tenth of the reference time. Sebastian Vettel, winner last year on the Sakhir circuit, failed three tenths behind the Brazilian. Force India once again looks competitive as Paul di Resta completed the top five while Adrian Sutil placed eighth behind the McLaren of Jenson Button and the RB9 of Mark Webber. The Lotuses of Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean complete the top ten.

Sergio Pérez still seems to be behind his teammate Jenson Button since the Mexican failed in 11th position with more than a second behind the best time. Valtteri Bottas placed the first Williams in 12th place behind Mercedes de Lewis Hamilton, the latter having missed his last flying lap. Jean-Eric Vergne finished the session in 14th place with four tenths ahead of his teammate Daniel Ricciardo. Pastor Maldonado finished two seconds behind, ahead of the Saubers of Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Gutierrez. Charles Pic took the 19th time, three seconds behind the benchmark. The Frenchman beat Heikki Kovalainen who replaced Giedo van der Garde in this session. Max Chilton and Rodolfo Gonzalez round out the list. The Venezuelan reserve driver who replaced Jules Bianchi this morning was only able to complete seven laps before encountering a gearbox problem during his first free practice session.

The second session will be followed from 13 p.m. (Paris time) live on AUTOhebdo.fr.