The Brazilian recorded Friday morning’s fastest time of 1:31.449 to top the timesheets by over half a second.

But ominously it was Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher that finished behind the Toyota reserve.

The German was at the wheel of the all-new F2005 and was comfortable quicker than any of his race rivals.

In fact the F2005 filled the top two ‘race positions’ with Rubens Barrichello finishing fifth fastest with a 1:31.111.

In between the Scuderia team-mates were Red Bull’s Viantonio Liuzzi and McLaren’s Alex Wurz.

Alex Wurz’s introduction to the MP4-20 could have gone smoother. The Austrian completed a handful of installation laps before attempting to push the car when he ground to a sudden halt. Luckily marshals could recover the stricken McLaren allowing Wurz to get a few laps under his belt before the end of the session. McLaren haven’t confirmed what the problem was.

The Ferrari F2005 may have been quick on Friday morning but a measuring stick of the new car’s form was unavailable.

The in-form cars of Renault and Toyota did not complete a flying lap during the opening session.

Sakhir was covered in sand on Friday morning and offered little grip for the F1 pilots. Many men were caught out by the conditions with Christijan Albers, Viantonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan, amongst others, spending time off track. Albers had the biggest moment of the morning. The Dutchman had a major lock-up going into turn nine, shooting off the circuit and almost hitting a barrier.

For the third straight race the Renault F1 team decided not to partake in the Friday morning free practice session.

The conservative Friday approach has not produced quick times on day one, but has given the team two straight pole positions and wins.

Renault’s closest rival, Toyota, decided to adopt the French team’s Friday morning approach by not running race drivers Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher.

Instead tester Zonta started the Toyota Bahrain weekend by running a total of 21 laps in the session.