Practice 1 Report - Michael fastest from the start

The first session of practice for the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix took place on Friday morning with Michael Schumacher showing that he is going to be a force to be reckoned with this weekend, setting a time which was half a second faster than that of his Ferrari team mate Rubens Barrichello. The Brazilian was three-tenths faster than the BAR-Honda of Anthony Davidson who who had Juan Pablo Montoya right behind him. Jenson Button was on the pace as well in fifth place ahead of David Coulthard, Ricardo Zonta, Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen and Takuma Sato. The two Renault drivers were not on the pace but the first sessions is by no means indicative of what a car is capable of doing.

There were no major incidents on the dusty track but Williams had Ralf Schumacher spin once and Montoya drift off twice. Toyota was also struggling for grip with spins for both Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta.