As seven of the F1 teams head back to base following the three-day test at Barcelona - Williams went home on Saturday - Ferrari and Toyota have begun two three-day tests at Sakhir, home of the Bahrain GP.

Four drivers were on duty today, with reigning World Champion Kimi Raikkonen topping the timesheets ahead of Luca Badoer.

The weather was ideal, with clear skies, even though it was a little windy at times.

The Maranello duo began work on a technical programme which concentrated on general development of the car, finding the best set-up and electronics.

Toyota was represented by Timo Glock and Kamui Kobayashi, both at the wheel of a TF108. The main item on the agenda for Glock was to continue to develop the set-up after solid progress in the last test at Valencia established a strong baseline.

Meanwhile, Kobayashi got his first chance to drive the TF108 and began by familiarising himself with the car before making initial set-up changes. The Japanese driver's programme was interrupted in the morning by a spin but his car suffered no serious damage and he was soon on track again, while Glock's set-up comparisons continued apace.

The German also found himself in the gravel after a minor afternoon off on a windy day but that did not stop him completing his mechanical set-up programme. He will be joined tomorrow by Jarno Trulli and the team expects to use the remainder of the test to continue set-up work, as well as making cooling checks in the warmer Bahraini weather and evaluating development items.

"I had quite a good day and we did a lot of useful work," said Glock. "In the morning there was a lot of sand on the track and from lap to lap we went quicker as the track got cleaner. It was difficult to get consistent track conditions but towards the end of the day it was better and we did some important tests. It has been a pretty good session and it was important to do these mechanical set-up changes. I hope tomorrow is less windy and we can continue this work."

"This was the first time I have driven the TF108," added Kobayashi, "and also the first time I have driven here in Bahrain. That meant it was quite a tough day for me learning the track and the car but it was good as well. The TF108 definitely has a lot of potential and today I could feel we are making good progress with it. We are heading in the right direction but we need to work hard and continue to improve performance. The track was not ideal with all the sand this morning and it was also windy but we were still able to do a lot of work without any car trouble."

"The track conditions on this first day made it quite challenging," said Test Team Manager, Gerd Pfeiffer, "because there was a lot of sand on the circuit in the morning but as this cleared up and more rubber went down, the lap times improved. In these circumstances it is a bit tricky to make set-up comparisons but we gained a lot of data and we believe we have made some important steps. Now we will build on this strong start tomorrow with more set-up work and test item evaluation."

Today's Times - All Times Unofficial

Name	Team	T	Laps	Time	Gap
Raikkonen	Ferrari	B	68	1:32.079	131.598 mph
Badoer	Ferrari	B	72	1:33.323	1.244
Glock	Toyota	B	72	1:33.418	1.339
Kobayashi	Toyota	B	62	1:33.856	1.777