By Nick Sparkes
March 12 2006

Fernando Alonso began his defence for this years Formula One World Championship by winning the first race in Bahrain. In an epic race, which saw many star drives from Raikkonen, Button and new boy Rosberg, Toyota failed to add anything to the party, as their disastrous weekend continued. Michael Schumacher lead the majority of the race in his Ferrari, until the final round of pit stops which saw the reigning World Champion run longer on his second stint. Traffic, a lack of blue flags and a bit of frustration failed to slow Alonso down as he exited the pit lane side by side with Michael’s Ferrari. But, as both cars came out of turn 2, it was Alonso ahead and Michael behind.

Felipe Massa who started alongside Michael was running third in the early stages until a spin at the first corner, almost wiping out Alonso who had got ahead of the Brazilian in the opening laps, cost the new Ferrari driver any chance of points.

Nico Rosberg, who spun on the first corner, had a sensational drive to seventh, setting fastest lap in the process. Rosberg in his first race for Williams, fought his way up from the back of the grid, passing car after car after car to finish behind his teammate Mark Webber.

For Toyota the opening lap saw Jarno drop back, just ahead of teammate Ralf. A couple of laps later Ralf ran wide in an attempt to overtake his teammate, dropping back a further place. Jarno would later settle down whilst Ralf would close up and pass his teammate during the second half of the race, Ralf would go on to pass Rubens Barrichello in the Honda who was suffering from the lack of third gear. But for Toyota, fourteenth and sixteenth for Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli was little reward for the team’s efforts during the winter and their worst result since 2004.