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Ricciardo set the benchmark time in the FP1 of the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix ahead of the Mercedes of Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari. The Red Bull racing driver was 0.304s faster than the Mercedes and 0.398 faster than the Ferrari. All the three drivers recorded their times on the prime yellow soft tire.
The session opening saw the other Red Bull driver Max Verstappen coast to the pitlane as he encountered electrical problems with his car and remained there for rest of the session as he failed to set a lap time.
Haas, of whom much was expected, did not fail to impress as Romain Grosjean finished P6 and his teammate Kevin Magnussen finished P9.
The biggest surprise of the session was Red Bull Honda Toro Rosso driver Pierre Gasly finishing P7 and also being the fastest car on the speed trap with 360kmph.
Red Bulls looks much more competitive than in Australian GP, while the top 3 teams, Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari's race simulation pace is very closely matched.
The Force India drivers struggled for pace with Perez P18 and Ocon finishing P19 considering Verstappen did not set a time and the team finished in the bottom of the timesheets.
