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Sebastian Vettel has ended the first free practice session from Bahrain on top after he set a lap time of 1:32.697. It wasn't all hope and delight at Ferrari however, as Kimi Raikkonen ended his session early with an overheated turbo, causing him to pull to the side and walk back to the pits.
The Red Bull's of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen finished second and third, with the Australian ahead of the Dutchman by four-tenths of a second. Red Bull will be searching for another strong result after Max Verstappen's fabulous drive in China to claim the team's first podium of the year.
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Mercedes finished the session in rather unorthodox positions, as Hamilton's fastest lap placed him tenth, almost two seconds down on Vettel's fastest time. Bottas was fourteenth, however, it is highly doubtful the session is a true representation of the Silver Arrows' pace.
Force India will be happy with the speed they showed so far today, with Sergio Perez settling in fourth, while Esteban Ocon wasn't far behind in seventh. Between the two pink Force India's was the two Williams' with Felipe Massa ahead of Lance Stroll.
Massa suffered a scare near the end of the session as he braked for the penultimate corner. The brakes on his car failed and he was sent into a violent spin, but luckily the barriers were nowhere near.
Fernando Alonso showed more promising pace in the struggling McLaren by setting the eighth quickest time, but their session will be overshadowed by yet another engine failure, this time in Vandoorne's car. The Belgian ended the session with the thirteenth quickest time, albeit in bitter disappointment.
Romain Grosjean was over a second quicker than team mate Kevin Magnussen in the Haas, with the Frenchman managing to post his lap time inside the top 10. Daniil Kvyat finished just outside the top 10 in eleventh, ahead of the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg in twelfth. Despite being three places higher than his team mate, Hulkenberg was only marginally quicker than Palmer, as the close midfield battle looks to continue here in the desert.
Marcus Ericsson finished ahead of Pascal Wehrlein in the Sauber, who makes his return and will take part in his first race of the season on Sunday. Sainz was nineteenth in the Toro Rosso while Raikkonen's Ferrari was left at the bottom of the timesheets after his early issues.
Fergal Walsh
Bahrain International Circuit - 14 April 2017
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
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