Anthony Davidson was the man to beat in Bahrain today, sending out a message of intent to the Honda Racing F1 Team’s rivals.

Honda made a successful start to its 2006 World Championship campaign in Bahrain today. Anthony Davidson, the team’s third driver, topped the time sheets with a lap of 1:31.353.

After an initial setback this morning when Anthony encountered a gearbox problem, his fast lap got things back on track in the afternoon session.

The team’s race drivers, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, completed some long runs to be ninth and 18th fastest, giving the team a lot of confidence for the remainder of the race weekend.

Conditions at the Bahrain International Circuit were cooler than expected, with the track temperature peaking at only 37 degrees. The track surface was also dusty at the beginning of the day, which was why neither race driver completed a flying lap during the first hour-long session.

Once the racing line had been cleaned by the other cars, the Honda cars took to the track in earnest in session two. Davidson completed 28 laps, Button 12 and Barrichello nine, with Davidson – who conducted an extensive tyre comparison for Michelin – immediately setting competitive times.

Windy conditions made car set-up difficult to ascertain, so the team must now evaluate the data collected today to perfect the set-up of the RA106 prior to tomorrow’s new, three-part qualifying system.

ANTHONY DAVIDSON Free Practice 1 – No timed lap Free Practice 2 – Position: 1st / No. Laps: 28 / Fastest lap time: 1:31.353“It’s great to be fastest on the opening day of the season but I wanted more from today, not just for me but for the team. It was disappointing to lose the first session to a gearbox problem but we made the best out of the situation this afternoon and completed most of the tyre programme. Our focus was on the long runs and we achieved a good result, so coupled with the information we got in testing here a few weeks ago we have a lot of information to work with this evening. The conditions here are very different though; it’s been quite windy today and there’s a chance that may continue. However we achieved a reasonably good balance by the end of the session so generally we’ve made a good start.”

JENSON BUTTON Free Practice 1 – Did not run (Third car programme) Free Practice 2 – Position: 9th / No. Laps: 12 / Fastest lap time 1:33.226“Not a bad first day. Having said that it’s disappointing that we couldn’t achieve as much data as we’d hoped for after losing all of the morning session. The track conditions are quite different to those we encountered in testing here three weeks ago so we have some work to do this evening with today’s data in order to keep improving for qualifying.”

RUBENS BARRICHELLO Free Practice 1 – Did not run (Third car programme)Free Practice 2 – Position: 18th / No. Laps: 9 / Fastest lap time: 1:34.384“Today the focus was on Anthony and the data he could achieve in the third car. The running that I completed this afternoon was useful although I didn’t really get a clean lap due to traffic and also the balance of the car was very different to the test here. We have some work to do to get the right balance on my car for tomorrow morning but right now I’m more enthusiastic about what we have been able to achieve with the third car today.”

Practice 2

1 Anthony Davidson (Honda Racing F1 Team) 1:31.3532 Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) 1:31.7513 Alexander Wurz (Williams-Cosworth) 1:31.7644 Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1:32.1755 Fernando Alonso (Renault) 1:32.5386 Vitantonio Liuzzi (STR-Cosworth) 1:32.7037 Robert Doornbos (RBR-Ferrari) 1:32.9268 Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) 1:33.2159 Jenson Button (Honda Racing F1 Team) 1:33.22610 Robert Kubica (Sauber-BMW) 1:33.24411 Christian Klien (RBR-Ferrari) 1:33.55712 Kimi Räikkönen (McLaren-Mercedes) 1:33.57713 Juan Pablo Montoya (McLaren-Mercedes) 1:33.72614 Nick Heidfeld (Sauber-BMW) 1:33.84815 Neel Jani (STR-Cosworth) 1:33.90016 Scott Speed (STR-Cosworth) 1:34.28417 Mark Webber (Williams-Cosworth) 1:34.33318 Rubens Barrichello (Honda Racing F1 Team) 1:34.38419 David Coulthard (RBR-Ferrari) 1:34.43220 Tiago Monteiro (MF1-Toyota) 1:34.45921 Nico Rosberg (Williams-Cosworth) 1:34.95322 Ralf Schumacher (Toyota) 1:35.17023 Markus Winkelhock (MF1-Toyota) 1:35.68624 Jarno Trulli (Toyota) 1:35.89825 Jacques Villeneuve (Sauber-BMW) 1:36.26426 Christijan Albers (MF1-Toyota) 1:36.31427 Takuma Sato (Super Aguri-Honda) 1:37.58828 Yuji Ide (Super Aguri-Honda) 1:39.021