Ferrari's Raikkonen tops the timesheets in Closing Bahrain GP practice

There was a lot of focus on Mercedes' engine modes at the Australian Grand Prix in the wake of Lewis Hamilton's dominant pole position, but the indications are that there is very little to choose between the performance of the German auto manufacturer and Ferrari.

The only sour note for Ferrari was the sight of Raikkonen pulling off the track towards the end of the session with a loose front-right wheel, although the Finn escaped a grid penalty.

Kimi Raikkonen was the fasted of the two Ferrari drivers coming in third just a tenth behind the Mercedes while teammate Sebastian Vettel was just a hair's breadth back in fourth place.

The German, victor a year ago on this circuit, lapped the 5.4-km Sakhir track in a time of one minute 27.958 seconds on Saturday, edging Raikkonen by a margin of 0.143 seconds.

If being beaten by both Ferraris and his teammate wasn't bad enough, Hamilton will drop a further five places to ninth on the grid due to an unscheduled gearbox change on Friday night.

"I was very happy with both laps in the end, and very happy with the result and the way the auto was handling and responding", he added.

It's Vettel's 200th career start, Hamilton's 100th start for Mercedes and Bottas's 100th Grand Prix start overall.

He heads into Sunday's race on course to become the first driver since Michael Schumacher in 2004 to open the season with consecutive wins for Ferrari. Really happy I got the second run and got it clean.

Then there's just how far Hamilton can get back up using his alternative tyre strategy and starting on a tyre which has looked the best of the three available over the weekend.

Vettel admitted after winning the season opener in Australia that his team still needed to make improvements to the SF71H, so F1 rivals Mercedes came into Bahrain favourites after Lewis Hamilton's dominant Q3 performance in Melbourne. I know exactly what I want, and we need to work on it. Here the track improves all the time, with more grip every lap.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was fifth, ahead of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. "We made some good progress through the weekend".

Toro Rosso rookie Pierre Gasly is next on the grid, promising an intriguing start to Sunday's race.

Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz put Renault best-of-the-rest with the seventh and eighth quickest times.

Williams are in even more trouble - Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll were 18th and 20th respectively, a poor result for a once-great team that finished third in the championship as recently as 2015.

Recommended:

• 

  08 April 2018

  Key messages for World Health Day 2018

  The UN General Assembly on Dec 12 in 2012 adopted a resolution emphasising health as a critical element in worldwide development. World Health Day is a global health awareness day which is celebrated under the sponsorship of World Health Organisation (WHO).
  

  08 April 2018

  Sensex rises 570 pts, Nifty above 10300 as RBI holds policy rates

  Consequently, Nifty closed flat at 10,332, while the Sensex settled with a slight gain of 30 points, or 0.09 per cent, at 33,627. The monetary policy committee of RBI kept the repo rate unchanged today at six percent, and has changed its stance to neutral.
  

  06 April 2018

  US To Sanction Russian Oligarchs With Ties To Putin

  The administration is trying to satisfy pressure from Congress to act on a sanctions law passed last summer, the official said. The US authorities are planning a new package of sanctions against Russian oligarchs, which will be announced later this week.
• 

  07 April 2018

  China to fight US protectionism "at any cost"

  The amount of US$50 billion made up almost half of the US$115.6 billion worth of United States goods that China imported in 2016. Shanghai September crude futures were untraded due to public holidays in China, after falling 0.8 percent on Wednesday.
  

  07 April 2018

  Couple strong storms possible Saturday afternoon, evening

  On Thursday the county will conduct two tornado drills with outdoor warning sirens sounded and NOAA weather radios activated. The potential for strong to severe showers and thunderstorms will be present Saturday afternoon and evening.
  

  06 April 2018

  Tesla's improved Model 3 results keep Elon Musk's balls in the air

  He agreed that Tesla needed eng & prod better aligned, so we don't design cars that are insane hard to build. The electric-car maker missed its production targets in the first-quarter.
• 

  06 April 2018

  Young Nicklaus gets Golden Bear hug after ace

  He did manage to walk off the course, saying only, "I'm going to get it checked out", as he headed into the clubhouse. Garcia said he got the stains when he put his arm around one of the people working backstage.
  

  06 April 2018

  How to Watch the 2018 Masters Tournament First Round Live Stream Online

  Rahm needed to win at Torrey Pines and was one shot behind going into the weekend until he closed with rounds of 75-77. On the sport's biggest stage, the PGA needs the Tiger hype. "I think that's what makes Sergio really special".
  

  06 April 2018

  'Impure' women helping stroke victim ordered out of sumo ring

  One woman told the men attending him that she was a doctor, at which point they moved and she began performing CPR on the man. Sumo traces its origins back 2,000 years to a time when it was an integral part of Shintoism.
• 

  08 April 2018

  Prince Harry and Meghan Markle meet British Invictus Games hopefuls

  The royal wedding is only six weeks away, but Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are busy fulfilling their royal engagements. She has been spending a lot of time in the country since she became a coach on The Voice UK previous year .
  

  08 April 2018

  Which drinks are affected by the sugar tax?

  FOOD taxes hit the least well-off the hardest - and experts say there's little evidence they fight obesity. In Hungary the "sweet" tax resulted in a reduction of sugar in beverages is 40%.
  

  06 April 2018

  UFC Strips Conor McGregor Of Title, McGregor Responds

  His last name is a bit of a tongue-twister (Nurm-a-go-med-ov) which it makes it easier for fans to chant "Khabib". Tony Ferguson was crowned interim lightweight champion this past October when he submitted Kevin Lee at UFC 216.