What does Friday say about the rest of the Grand Prix weekend in Bahrain?

What about Mercedes and Red Bull

Mercedes follow up behind Ferrari. Toto Wolff confirmed that Valtteri Bottas is continuing his fine form from Australia, while Lewis Hamilton is fighting back. As always, the Silver Arrow will have more to give tomorrow and they will make a fight for the front row tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Red Bull seem to be struggling with the soft tyres. Verstappen and Gasly both said they feel comfortable on the medium, but lack grip with the soft. The Dutchman was beaten by Nico Hulkenberg's Renault, while Gasly finished outside the top 10. As Verstappen admitted, they've got some work to do. Qualifying might not be their strong point, but things could turn around for them on Sunday.

Big woes for Mercedes customer teams

The two Williams cars are again parked right at the back of the grid, while Racing Point could only manage P14 and P17. Lance Stroll expected to be much higher when he left Williams behind, but it doesn't seem to be the case. However, Racing Point's Saturday and Sunday was much better in Australia. Stroll demonstrated he can move through the field, something which he may have to repeat in Bahrain.

Tyres, tyres, tyres.

We've already touched on Red Bull's trouble with the soft compound, but what about the temperatures.

Even the experienced Kimi Raikkonen struggled as he came back on track for the first time in FP2. He spun his Alfa Romeo as he was caught out on the difference in track temperature from FP1. Also noteworthy is the duration of hot laps on the tyres. Pace from most of the drivers indicated that tyres dropped off after a single hot lap and wouldn’t hold on for a second attempt with a cool off lap in between.