It was close, but Fernando Alonso started his title defence very much in the way he ended his championship season last year by winning. Starting fourth the Renault star forced his way past the slow starting Jenson Button and soon after past Felipe Massa to set up the battle with Michael Schumacher. It was close race long but the second and final pit stop saw the Spaniard exit the pits half a car length ahead of Schumacher's Ferrari and from that point onwards, he absorbed the pressure to win by just over a second.
Schumacher was all smiles despite not winning the Bahrain Grand Prix, but it is clear that the former Champions have a competitive package in the Bridgestone-shod 248 F1, allowing Schumacher to challenge for race wins.
Behind Alonso and Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen used a one stop strategy to perfection to move up from 22nd on the grid to third 57-laps later. The McLaren Mercedes driver was quickly up behind Jacques Villeneuve just outside the top ten and then bided his time and waiting for those ahead to pit. From almost nothing, Raikkonen and McLaren Mercedes have rescued the race weekend with a valuable podium and points.
Jenson Button qualified third and will be disappointed not to finish the race on the podium for Honda. The opening laps of the race cost button dearly as his tardy getaway from the lights was compounded by some shaky early laps in which he found himself fighting hard with non-other than his team-mate Rubens Barrichello. Button would hold it together and chased Raikkonen across the line. For Barrichello, the race soon turned sour as a gearbox problem saw the Brazilian drop down the order to an eventual 15th.
Juan Pablo Montoya had a fairly quiet race to fifth in his McLaren Mercedes. Starting in the same position the Colombian soon fell away from the front runners and then had a lonely race to the flag. With Raikkonen move from the back to third, Montoya's race was hardly inspired.
Bahrain brought double joy for Williams Cosworth as Mark Webber kept his nose clean to finish sixth while Rookie Rosberg recovered from a bump on lap one and the subsequent pit stop for a new front wing. The German charged back through the field, lapping a second faster than team-mate Webber for much of the race to finish seventh, passing the Red Bull Ferrari duo of Christian Klien and David Coulthard in the closing stages. It was a very impressive debut from Rosberg.
The final point did indeed go to Klien and the Red Bull Ferrari team who managed to get both RB2's home despite having never completed a race distance in pre-season testing. Coulthard would finish in tenth position.
It wasn't to be for Felipe Massa who started on the front row of the grid alongside Ferrari team-mate Schumacher. Alonso got the better of the Brazilian early on and eager to find a way back past the Renault driver, Massa locked his right rear brake and had a high speed off at the tight first turn. With his tyres badly flat-spotted, Massa pitted his 248 F1 only for the right rear wheel to stick costing his nearly 50 seconds in the pits. Massa fought back but ninth is not what he wanted on his Ferrari debut.
Toro Rosso duo Tonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed finished 11th and 13th with Nick Heidfeld in between in the BMW Sauber F1.06. Heidfeld found himself in trouble right at the start of the race as Rosberg clipped the back of his white and blue machine forcing him into a spin. Heidfeld fought back and was chasing team-mate Villeneuve until the Canadian's engine failed in a dramatic flash or fire and a cloud of billowing smoke.
Over at Toyota there is nothing positive to take away from the first race of the season. The team were slow in pre-season testing, slow in practice and slow on race day. Ralf Schumacher finish 14th over 20 seconds behind the Toro Rosso of Speed while Jarno Trulli was completely off the pace unable even to find the pace - or perhaps the motivation - to challenge Barrichello who was liming around with gearbox troubles. Toyota were the first team to bring out a 2006 race car and it seems it is a bit of a turkey.
At the back Tiago Monteiro started from the pit lane in his MF1 Toyota following a driveshaft failure on the way to the grid and was classified 17th while Super Aguri Honda racer Takuma Sato was a mere four laps off the pace and 18th. It is impressive that the Super Aguri team even made it to Bahrain, but they have a long way to go to go to look the part in F1.
And that just leaves Giancarlo Fisichella who started just ninth after electrical mapping problems with his Renault yesterday in qualifying. After telling his team that his car wasn't very good at all - and I am paraphrasing there - his R26 developed a terminal hydraulics problem and his race was over. Reliability was very impressive throughout the field but as ever one Renault ran flawlessly and one had an issue or two.