Silver Arrows sparkle under the Friday night Bahrain lights

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton used the Soft compound tyre only in FP1, the Soft and SuperSoft in FP2.

The FP2 saw both Nico and Lewis eclipse the Bahrain Grand Prix race lap record of 1:31.447 set by Pedro de la Rosa in 2005.

Nico Rosberg: "I couldn't wait to get back in the car after a great weekend in Melbourne and I felt really good out there. It's been an encouraging first day for the team. We were very quick on one lap and also on the longer runs, so I'm really looking forward to qualifying and the race. I like this track very much. The atmosphere is great and it looks really spectacular driving under the lights in the evening. It should be an exciting weekend!"

Lewis Hamilton: "That was a good Friday overall. The car is performing really well here. There were no surprises or issues to report throughout both practice sessions, which is always a good sign. Understanding the tyres has been key to our work today as they'll be a big factor this weekend. There's some work to do tonight in terms of finding a few improvements from the car and also my driving style. I'm looking forward to getting back out there and making some more progress tomorrow."

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): "We've had some very unusual weather in Bahrain this week, which has made this quite a different Friday. It's been very cool. We didn't see anything like the high track temperatures normally experienced in FP1 at this circuit. This allowed us to do plenty of useful, representative running in both sessions, looking at the soft and supersoft on high and low fuel. Both drivers are happy with the car, so we can be pleased with our day's work. The most interesting point from the day has been the level of degradation over long runs on all the different tyre compounds, which should produce some interesting strategies for the race, so we look forward to seeing how that plays out on Sunday. "

Mercedes AMG Petronas