Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer, fresh from his appearance in the opening ceremony at the Winter Olympics in Turin, dominated the first day of testing at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain.

First priority was to fine tune, as well as possible, the two cars being used - the F2004 fitted with a regulated V10 and the 248 F1 - which were driven by Badoer and Felipe Massa respectively.

Also on the agenda was the start of Bridgestone tyre testing for the first races of the season.

"I am very pleased that we have come to the Bahrain International Circuit as it is an ideal track to prepare for the season," said the Italian. "The asphalt is very good and once it has been cleaned of the sand, the track conditions remain very consistent for the rest of the session. This is a very important test for us because we can practice in the same conditions we will have at the first race of the season."

Anthony Davidson and 'Young Driver' James Rossiter performed the driving duties for Honda, both British drivers at the wheel of the new RA106.

Davidson had a productive morning working on finding a good chassis balance. He continued to work on the set-up during the afternoon session, completing a tyre evaluation alongside an aero programme.

Rossiter also focused on set-up work alongside a short aero evaluation in the afternoon session. .

Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello will take over driving duties tomorrow.

Scott Speed spent the morning working on general set-up for Toro Rosso, looking at elements such as ride height and aero balance.

"The car ran well and it has been very useful to evaluate downforce levels and work out what level to use in the race," commented Chief Engineer, Laurent Mekies.

In the afternoon, Scott embarked on a simulated race distance, including 'live' pit stop with full fuel rig use.

"Considering that we have several new guys on the team, who have not worked together before, the pit stop went well," continued Mekies. "Unfortunately, Scott was unable to complete the race distance as the session was red flagged when another car stopped on track. We are using the RB1 here because there was no time to get the STR 1 here after its inaugural test in Jerez last week. STR 1 will be testing again in Imola next week."

Tomorrow, Tonio Liuzzi will be on duty for the Italian team.

Weather
Air temperature: 22-27 C
Track temperature: 25-33 C
Sunny, some cloud