Ferrari, BAR, McLaren, Renault, Toyota and Williams all traded blows in a session packed full of nail biting efforts.

The session wasn’t decided until a minute after the chequered flag was waved with Williams’ Mark Webber putting in a stunning final lap.

The Australian tied together three strong sectors, none of which were the fastest, to record a new Sakhir unofficial track record with a time of 1:29.527.

Webber was the only man to better the mark – recorded by BAR’s Jenson Button during practice for last year’s event – but seven other men managed to beat the 2004 pole position time.

Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher was the first of the group in second position, followed by Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault), Jarno Trulli (Toyota), Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren), Fernando Alonso (Renault), Pedro de la Rosa (McLaren) and Christian Klien (Red Bull).

In the end the top-eight were separated by just over three tenths setting up an enticing battle in Saturday afternoon’s qualifying run.

Michael Schumacher – who held pole here last season – couldn’t repeat his earlier performance and slipped down to ninth.

But the German was nonetheless competitive finishing the morning half a second off the pace but also with the fastest first sector time.

Ferrari elected not to run Rubens Barrichello on Saturday morning despite fixing his car’s gearbox.

The decided to take the safe option and leave the car idle until qualifying so no further damage was done.

A new ‘box is expected to be fitted later today.