Daniel Ricciardo has topped the first practice session from Bahrain, setting a lap time of 1:31.060. The Australian was over three-tenths of a second ahead of the rest of the field, with Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas filling in the second spot.

The biggest story from the 90-minute session was an issue that hit Max Verstappen early on. The Red Bull suffered from a reported electrical problem before he had even set a timed lap, and he failed to get back out onto the circuit for the rest of the session.

The Ferrari's followed in third and fourth, with Kimi Raikkonen heading Sebastian Vettel. The Scuderia will be hoping to take its second victory in a row, after claiming the win in Melbourne at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago.

Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton was fifth, finishing over a second behind pace-setter Ricciardo. Romain Grosjean followed for Haas in sixth, with his teammate Kevin Magnussen completing a double top-ten finish for the American team in ninth.

Pierre Gasly showed encouraging pace for Toro Rosso by getting the car into seventh place. He was in front of Carlos Sainz for Renault who finished eighth, with his teammate Nico Hulkenberg managing to get himself into tenth place.

Lance Stroll and Charles Leclerc had two similar spins at Turn 7, with the rear of the Williams and Sauber getting around and sending each driver into a spin. Leclerc ended the session in twelfth behind Fernando Alonso, but ahead of the other McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne.

Stroll himself ended up in fourteenth, with teammate Sergey Sirotkin narrowly behind. Brendon Hartley was sixteenth, with the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson behind the Kiwi. The Force India pair of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon were the last of the drivers on the timesheets, as Verstappen failed to post a time.

Fergal Walsh