Length: 5.417 km
Number of Laps: 57 (308.769 Km)
Best Lap: M. Schumacher - 1'30''252 (2004, Ferrari)
Record Pole: M. Schumacher - 1'30''139 (2004, Ferrari)
2005 Pole: F. Alonso - 1'32''054 (Renault)
2005 Podium: F. Alonso - J. Trulli - K. Raikkonen

Alonso made a fantastic start, challenging the two Ferrari’s down to the first corner, and made a clean pass on Felipe Massa stick a few corners later. Schumacher had already asserted himself at the head of the field. Behind the lead group an incident in the midfield put the BMW-Sauber into a spin as he tangled with the Williams of rookie Nico Rosberg. Heidfeld regained the track while Rosberg visited the pits for a new nose.

A few laps into the race and Felipe Massa’s lack of experience of the front end of Formula One took its toll, the Brazilian locking up into a corner and almost collecting Alonso in the process. Massa would go on to pit for new tyres, but a spirited drive back through the field would net only ninth position.

From the back of the grid Kimi Raikkonen in the McLaren had already made startling progress, despatching the Super Aguris and the Midlands, and setting about chasing the points scoring positions. His progress would be meteoric, making the top ten within the first ten laps.

Throughout the field were some tight battles in the early stages, particularly a scrap between Heidfeld, forcing the BMW-Sauber back through the pack, and David Coulthard in the Red Bull. These two would meet again later in the race and indulge in further tussles, although tenth (Coulthard) and 12th would be poor reward for a hard afternoon of racing.

Jenson Button, much fancied as a potential victor, had made a less than perfect start in the Honda and had to fight for a place with team-mate Rubens Barrichello in the early laps. It was quite clear that the two were racing as Button fought his way past eventually, Barrichello giving nothing away.

Out in the lead and holding Alonso at bay, Schumacher made his first stop at the end of lap 16, the Ferrari crew turning him around in their usual efficient manner. The Renault would stay out for four further laps before pitting, and emerge behind Schumacher but somewhat closer.

With Jenson Button pitting on lap 20 it appeared that possible victory was slipping from Honda’s grasp. Barrichello had dropped away from the pace with a gearbox problem and would finish a disappointed 15th.

With Buttons stop, the amazing Raikkonen was into the top six and, when team mate Juan Pablo Montoya pitted along with Mark Webber in the Williams and a rejuvenated Jacques Villeneuve, the Finn found himself in third position.

Villeneuve’s race was worthy of note, the veteran Canadian running strongly among the points scoring positions until a spectacular engine failure ended his race on lap 30. Just prior to Villeneuve’s exit, Giancarlo Fisichella had retired his Renault with a mechanical malady carried over from yesterday’s qualifying session.
Back at the front Jenson Button was picking up the pace and overtook Montoya’s McLaren with a decisive move. Also running well at this point were the two Red Bulls of Christian Klien and David Coulthard. Klien in particular drove a fine race to eighth place, while Coulthard lost pace towards the end of the race and finished a fighting tenth.

Mark Webber drove a hard race, mixing with the Red Bulls in the early stages, and would bring his Williams home in sixth, but for many the star of the race was young Rosberg, who fought back in style from the first corner mishap, taking Klien for seventh place in the dying laps. An impressive debut performance all-round.

By the middle of the race it became clear that Raikkonen, who had started from 22nd place, was making only one pit stop, and this he did shortly after half distance. This dropped him to sixth place, but with all cars ahead of him needing to stop again.

Michael Schumacher made his final stop in lap 35, and again the crew got him away very quickly. Alonso then received the instruction that these were ‘winning laps’ and set about trying to claw an advantage. The Renault stop, on lap 39, was superb, and Fernando emerged from the pits just as Schumacher was passing the exit. A tough stance kept the Renault ahead, a lead he would not lose.

With Webber, Button and Montoya all having made their second stops, Raikkonen was back in a podium spot, with Button right on his tail. With the Mclaren ever lighter, Button could not find a way past and would settle for fourth place. Montoya finished in fifth, with no sign of the expected reliability problems affecting either McLaren.

The Williams ran well toward the end, Rosberg frequently the fastest man on the circuit, and sixth and seventh, for Webber and Rosberg, a promising result for a team with no works engine deal.

The fuss surrounding the V10 engined Toro Rosso cars proved unfounded as the cars ran reasonably quickly, and reliably, to 11th (Vitantonio Liuzzi) and and 13th for new boy Scott Speed.

The disappointment of the race has to be the performance of Toyota. The two TF106’s cruised around Sakhir to 15th and 16th positions for Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli, and never looked like troubling anything other than the Midland M16’s with which they share a power plant. With the next race at Malaysia in just a weeks time, there will be no ‘quick fix’ for Toyota, and the drivers and team will surely be looking at a similar race there.

Midland posted the first retirement of 2006 when Cristijan Albers stopped early in the race, although Tiago Monteiro added to his amazing finishing record with 17th place.

Last runner, as expected, was Takuma Sato for the new Super Aguri team, the re-vamped Arrows troubling no-one as it ran to 18th position, some four laps down. New boy Yuji Ide was an early retirement having already attracted the attention of the Stewards when his mechanics remained on the grid after the permitted time.

So a fine win for Fernando Alonso, the World Champion continuing where he left off, but a promising second and return to form for Ferrari and Michael Schumacher who endured such a torrid season last year. Raikkonens superb run to third from last place on the grid confirms the pace of the McLaren, and with both cars showing no sign of mechanical maladies they will surely be among the winners in the near future. Disappointment, though, for Honda, of whom so much was expected here in Bahrain.