Ferrari laid down the early marker to the rivals in Bahrain as Charles Leclerc lead a 1-2 in Practice 1.
In the heat of the afternoon, conditions were far from representative of what they’ll be under the lights and a dusty track meant drivers were struggling for traction with a number of slides and spins.
It didn’t stop the Scuderia though as Leclerc set an impressive 1m30.354s on the C3 soft tyre to sit a quarter of a second clear of teammate Sebastian Vettel.
Both drivers also could have gone faster having been hindered by traffic at different stages of their lap.
It was still enough for the Monegasque to be almost a second clear of Valtteri Bottas in third, as the Finn was again the lead Mercedes.
That was because of an erratic lap for Lewis Hamilton with the Briton running wide twice, but he was still able to sit fourth ahead of the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly.
In the midfield, Carlos Sainz surprised in P7 for McLaren, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault.
The German also got involved in a notable clash with Antonio Giovinazzi in the final minutes after the pair touched wheels through Turn 6, pitching the Alfa Romeo in the air momentarily.
Daniil Kvyat took ninth for Toro Rosso as Kimi Raikkonen completed the top 10, this despite two near-misses with Sainz and Alex Albon at different stages of the session.
Daniel Ricciardo sat P11 with Kevin Magnussen only 12th in the first of the Haas cars that are expected to lead the midfield this weekend.
Teammate Romain Grosjean was well down in 17th and would have a drama in the final minutes as the right-hand side of his front wing collapsed inexplicably.
Sergio Perez sat P14 for Racing Point, but his partner Lance Stroll lost a chunk of the session after spinning at Turn 4 and making gentle contact with the inside wall.
Williams again brought up the rear with George Russell just ahead of Robert Kubica but still well over a second off the next representative midfield time.
Full lap times from Practice 1 can be seen below:
