Listen to live Bahrain Grand Prix coverage of first and second practice

Summary

Raikkonen fastest in second practice, Hamilton 4th
Final practice Saturday 13:00 BST, qualifying at 16:00
Ricciardo top in first practice, Hamilton only 5th
Get involved: Your plan for F1; how would you improve it? #bbcf1

Live Reporting

Michael Emons

Feeling hot, hot, hotpublished at 11:57 British Summer Time 6 April 2018
Just over a month ago the Formula 1 world was shivering in the snow in Barcelona testing, now we are in the Bahrain desert - and it is hot.
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Verstappen loving Bahrainpublished at 11:55 British Summer Time 6 April 2018
Max Verstappen has had a great time in Bahrain already. He posted this picture of him jet-skiing yesterday. Admit it, it looks great fun.
Image source, Max Verstappen
get involved
Get Involved #bbcf1published at 11:53 British Summer Time 6 April 2018
Your plans for F1 / How would you improve F1?
Chris Marsh aka Rek Arathor: How to improve F1? Figure of eight tracks! That should spice it up a bit.
Christian Withers: Lift ban on active suspension, points for qualifying & reverse grid. Simple.
Gareth Pritchard: Add weight to the winning cars, the BTCC was in the wilderness for a few years but the new structure is making some amazing racing, totally unpredictable.
Ralph MacGregor‏: I would improve F1 by trying to level the playing field and make it about drivers, not cars. manufacturers submits a publicly available chassis and engine spec and then each team pays a sub for the year for an engine and chassis of choice.
Listen to the Chequered Flag Podcastpublished at 11:50 British Summer Time 6 April 2018
Before we get going in Bahrain, don't forget about BBC Radio 5 live's Chequered Flag Podcast.
We will be live on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra from 11:55 BST and you can listen along by pressing the play button at the top.
Click on the link below to listen to the podcast.
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The numbers you needpublished at 11:48 British Summer Time 6 April 2018
Some technical details for all you stat fans, courtesy of Pirelli for this weekend.
Image source, Pirelli
get involved
Get Involved #bbcf1published at 11:44 British Summer Time 6 April 2018
Your plans for F1 / How would you improve F1?
And that is the topic of our debate today.
Imagine you are in charge at Liberty Media and it is your job to improve Formula 1. What do you do? What needs to change?
The floor is yours, there is no such thing as a bad idea, well, sort of.
So don't be shy, get involved and tweet us using the hashtag #bbcf1 and send us your ideas.
'No concrete details'published at 11:42 British Summer Time 6 April 2018
Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain
Auto Motor Und Sport are reporting that F1 plans for a $150m budget cap from 2021.
The F1 press release contains no concrete details of their proposals at all - only vagueness re cheaper, simpler engines, budget not to define performance, a cost cap, "more balanced" income distribution and "more raceable" cars. Ie, a reiteration of what has already been said.
Formula 1's plan for the futurepublished at 11:40 British Summer Time 6 April 2018
Earlier today, Formula 1 bosses spelled out their vision for the sport's future to the teams. F1 motorsports boss Ross Brawn explained the plans of Liberty Media, which bought the commercial rights last year, on cost control, revenue and technical rules.
Those plans included ways of cutting costs, creating a more equitable split of revenue among teams, a simplified engine and an increased number of standard parts.
It was the first time teams had heard this amount of detail on Liberty's plans.
The plan had four main aims:
- reduce the gap in prize money earnings between the top and bottom of the field
- cut the £300m+ budgets of the top teams to about half that
- simpler, cheaper engines that reduce the gap in performance between the best and worst, and open F1 to new entrants
- simplify the technical rules to reduce cost by standardising parts that are perceived to have minimal effect on both performance and the show.
Image source, Getty Images
A chance for Hamilton to make amendspublished at 11:38 British Summer Time 6 April 2018
Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain
And so to round two of 21. Formula 1 has swapped the streets and easy living of Melbourne for the desert of Bahrain, and Lewis Hamilton has his first chance to make amends for his Mercedes team throwing away the first race of the new season.
The question still hanging over Formula 1 is, how easy will that be? Are Mercedes really as far ahead as Hamilton’s stupendous qualifying lap in Australia suggested? Or is it close again between the silver cars and red, just as it was last year. As Hamilton himself says: “We will have a much better idea over the coming races.”
Image source, Getty Images
Thanks for joining uspublished at 11:34 British Summer Time 6 April 2018
Hello and welcome along to BBC Sport's live text commentary from the opening two practice sessions for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
I'm Michael Emons and I will be guiding you through the action today and we will also have live radio commentary from 11:55 BST on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra.
First blood to Vettelpublished at 11:30 British Summer Time 6 April 2018
The race to five. That is how many people are seeing this Formula 1 season as Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, both four-time world champions, battle to win a fifth title.
If that is what this season is about, then it is first blood to Vettel as he, aided by a virtual safety car and some nifty work from his team in the pits, won the season opener in Melbourne with Hamilton second.
But it is on to the next one and on to Bahrain for the second race weekend of the season. Let's have a look and see how they are all getting on with the opening practice session.
Image source, Getty Images