Formula One: Sebastian Vettel dominates Bahrain practice

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel steers back to the pit lane during a practice session ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain's capital, Manama yesterday. Pic/AFP

Manama: Sebastian Vettel ended Friday practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix at the top of the timesheets, before being temporarily sidelined on a day marred by car gremlins for Ferrari.

The four-times world champion set a time of one minute, 31.310 seconds under the floodlights at the Sakhir circuit. But he coasted to a halt soon after, telling his team that his car had switched off.

"Complete shutdown, complete shutdown," Vettel reported over the team radio.

The German, only minutes before, had asked his team whether they could turn down the brightness of the gear change lights on his steering wheel.

He later rejoined the session but reported seeing a brake warning flash up on his dashboard.

Kimi Raikkonen had been forced to park up his Ferrari with an engine failure in the opening afternoon session, which Vettel also topped.

Unlike his team-mate, however, he unable to rejoin the session had to trudge back to the pits in searing desert heat having completed just six laps.

Valtteri Bottas ended the day second fastest for Mercedes, just 0.041 seconds off Vettel's best with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo third.

The Australian also lapped within a tenth of a second of his former team-mate, potentially hinting at a three-way battle for victory in Sunday's race.

Lewis Hamilton, who heads into the weekend tied on points with Vettel at the top of the overall standings after having won the last race in China, was only fifth behind Raikkonen.

But the triple champion had to abort his fastest lap after being baulked by the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg, who ended the day sixth, in an incident being investigated by the stewards.

"These drivers are just so dangerous, man," Hamilton said over the radio.

Felipe Massa went seventh quickest for Williams ahead of Red Bull teenager Max Verstappen.

Romain Grosjean was ninth for Haas ahead of Russian Daniil Kvyat, whose Toro Rosso rounded out the top ten.

Fernando Alonso, who earlier in the week stunned the F1 world with his decision to skip the sport's blue-riband Monaco Grand Prix and race in the Indy 500 instead, was fourteenth.

His McLaren team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne, who scored the struggling Woking-based squad's first points of the season on his debut in last year's Bahrain race, ran into car trouble in both sessions.

He finished last after limited running.

Vettel, winner of the season-opening race in Australia, and Hamilton both have a win and a second-place each.

At least one of them will leave Bahrain clear of the other at the top of the standings unless both fail to score.