It was a very hot afternoon at the Bahrain International Circuit, with air temperatures around 35 degrees Celsius and the track temperature close to 50.

Six rookies took part in FP1. Ayumu Iwasa drove the Red Bull instead of Max Verstappen. Dino Beganovic replaced Charles Leclerc at Ferrari. Frederik Vesti was in the Mercedes instead of George Russell. Felipe Drugovich took over from Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin. Ryo Hirakawa drove for Haas in place of Oliver Bearman. Luke Browning replaced Carlos Sainz at Williams.

Iwasa was the first driver to leave the pits and set a lap time. However, his time of one minute forty one point five seconds was quickly beaten. Lando Norris and Alex Albon went to the top of the times early in the session. Norris led the way with a time of one minute thirty five point six seconds.

Kimi Antonelli had a difficult session as he reported a problem with the power. He returned to the garage and did not go back out. The team found a suspected water leak and had to take the car apart to fix it.

Other drivers also had problems. Lewis Hamilton said he had no grip and felt like the car was not working properly. Oscar Piastri and Liam Lawson also said the grip levels on the track were very low. Lawson described the car balance as "shocking".

There was also some drama in the pit lane. Yuki Tsunoda had trouble with the throttle and also had a small incident near the Red Bull garage. Later, Alex Albon had a close moment with his teammate Luke Browning, who was then noted for getting in the way.

As the session came to an end, drivers started using soft tyres and improved their lap times. Lando Norris went back to the top with a time of 1:33.204. He was just over two tenths of a second faster than Pierre Gasly. Lewis Hamilton moved up to third place but was still more than half a second slower than Norris.

Luke Browning was the fastest rookie in thirteenth place. Behind him was Dino Beganovic in fourtheenth and Felipe Drugovich in sixteenth. Ryo Hirakawa was seventeenth and Frederik Vesti was eighteenth. Ayumu Iwasa finished in nineteenth place, and Kimi Antonelli ended the session last due to his early technical problem.