Lewis Hamilton led a surprise Mercedes one-two from team-mate George Russell on Thursday in Sakhir; watch final practice from 12.30pm on Friday, with qualifying at 4pm and the Bahrain Grand Prix itself at 3pm on Saturday – all live on Sky Sports F1.

Lewis Hamilton admitted it was a shock to finish the first day of the 2024 Formula 1 season at the top of the timesheet as Mercedes showed surprising pace in Bahrain Grand Prix practice. Most had expected Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to dominate Thursday’s second session, which took place in the same evening conditions as qualifying and Saturday’s race will, but Hamilton led a one-two from Mercedes team-mate Russell.

While the seven-time world champion warned that he expects Verstappen to have strong race pace, Mercedes appear to be genuine contenders for pole position in qualifying, live at 4pm on Sky Sports F1 on Friday.

Lewis Hamilton said, “P1, we were surprised. It was very, very windy this morning so it was a really difficult session I think for everyone. The track was so different I think compared to practice [testing] last week. Otherwise, it was feeling ok, but we didn’t really know where we stood on the C2 (medium) tyre. And then in this session, we made some improvements over the session. Again, I don’t understand… it’s a shock to see us where we are but we’ll take it for now, but we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We need to keep our heads down, keep working on the set-up and try to extract more. I think our long-run pace is nowhere near the Red Bulls’, for example, and I think we [other front-runners] are all a lot closer, so we’ve got some work to do there.”

Hamilton, who is starting his 12th and final season with Mercedes having agreed to join Ferrari next year, is pleased with the changes the Silver Arrows have implemented on their W15 car after successive seasons without a win for the 39-year-old. “I’m much happier with the car this year,” Hamilton added. “My seating position is much better, and I’m much more comfortable with the car this year. It’s a good step forward, but we’ve still got work to do.”