Silver Arrows Reign

Hamilton's Mercedes lighting up the timesheets on both Practice sessions.

Mercedes dominance showed no sign of wavering today as both W05 cars were fastest in Free Practice 1 and 2 of Friday's session at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Lewis Hamilton topped the time sheets on each occasion, edging out German teammate Nico Rosberg by 0.231 seconds and 0.365 seconds respectively.

Racing underneath the floodlights as dusk set upon the track, Lewis spoke to formula1.com of the importance of the evening session as Bahrain celebrates hosting it's first Grand Prix 10 years ago by staging a night race,

"The focus today was on the second session as the timing and conditions reflects that of the rest of the weekend and the difference in temperature between the sessions was quite large. The key was not to react too much to that change in terms of our approach to set-up and we seemed to manage that well."

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso consistently had the honour of being the best of the rest in each session, but with over 1 seconds difference between himself and Hamilton in FP2, the Scuderia don't look as if they can challenge for Pole Position tomorrow.

Daniel Ricciardo out for 'revenge' this weekend.

Daniel Ricciardo's atrocious misfortune in the previous 2 races at Australia and Malaysia are in need of being reversed this weekend; hopefully converting such strong and impressive starts to his Red Bull career into points to show for it once the chequered flag drops on Sunday.

However, with a 10 grid penalty even before an engine roared in Sakhir for an unsafe pit release in the previous Grand Prix, the 24 year old has his work cut out for him. Yet, a strong 4th in FP2 can be a positive to take into FP3 and Qualifying.

Mclaren's Jenson Button celebrates his 250th Grand Prix start, and this magnificent milestone looks to be one that could see him officially on the podium for the first time since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix. His fastest lap time of 1:35.528, which saw him 6th in FP2, is a performance the team will want to build upon to showcase themselves as real contenders for a trophy.

Rob Smedley

Off the track, Rob Smedley reunited with Felipe Massa at Williams after both left Ferrari last year.
Rob, who was Massa's race engineer from 2006-2013, begins his new position as Head of Vehicle Performance- working under Chief Technical Officer, Pat Symonds.
And Rob's presence seemed to be a positive influence on Felipe, finishing 5th fastest in FP2.