TRIDENT’s Rafael Câmara picked up where he left off in Melbourne to set the pace in the opening session in Sakhir, his 1:50.984 the fastest time of Free Practice.
The Brazilian driver eclipsed Nikola Tsolov’s early benchmark time by 0.127s to end up fastest ahead of his Campos Racing rival, while ART Grand Prix rookie Tuukka Taponen rounded out the top three.
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Ivan Domingues had the track to himself early on as the rest of the field waited in the pit lane. He set a 1:52.776 to complete the first push lap of the session.
Action started to ramp up with 15 minutes to go as one by one all 30 cars started to head back out on to the circuit.
After the first set of push laps, it was Tsolov that set the pace with a 1:51.111, with Rodin Motorsport rookie Roman Bilinski 0.312s behind in P2.
However, Tsolov was down to second as Câmara went top on a 1:50.984, putting the Brazilian 0.127s clear in front.
Fellow rookie Taponen went to third for ARTover two-tenths back from the leading time, as Van Amersfoort Racing’s Santiago Ramos jumped up to fourth.
The drivers continued to set their best times up until the chequered flag as MP Motorsport’s Alessandro Giusti ended up in P5 ahead of the TRIDENT of Charlie Wurz and Bilinski.
MP had three cars in the top 10 with Tim Tramnitz and Bruno del Pino in eighth and ninth, while PREMA Racing’s Ugo Ugochukwu rounded out the top 10.
The drivers will be back out on track at the Bahrain International Circuit later today for Qualifying at 16:00 local time.