Honda in sunny Bahrain

The Honda Racing F1 Team's first test at the Bahrain International Circuit began on Monday morning in warm and sunny conditions with an ambient temperature of 25 degrees Celsius. Anthony Davidson and 'Young Driver' James Rossiter performed the driving duties today in chassis RA106-01 and the brand new chassis RA106-03 respectively.

The team is sharing the circuit with Ferrari and Scuderia Toro Rosso as it prepares for the opening race of the season in just under four weeks time. This week is also a first for the Bahrain circuit, which is staging an F1 test for the very first time. The track surface continually improved over the course of the day as the amount of fresh rubber being laid down increased.

Anthony Davidson and 'Young Driver' James Rossiter performed the driving duties today in chassis RA106-01 and the brand new chassis RA106-03 respectively.

Anthony had a productive morning working on finding a good chassis balance and completing 53 laps. He continued to work on the set-up during the afternoon session, completing a tyre evaluation alongside an aero programme. Anthony completed 114 laps in total today and set the fastest time of the 2006 cars - a 01:32.571 - behind Badoer's V10 engined Ferrari.

James also focused on set-up work for the new chassis 03, alongside a short aero evaluation in the afternoon session. James completed 68 laps in total today and set competitive lap times in what was his first drive in the new RA106.

Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello will take over the driving duties tomorrow.

Bahrain test times - Monday
1. Luca Badoer (Ferrari V10) 1m 32.309s
2. Anthony Davidson (Honda) 1m 32.571s
3. James Rossiter (Honda) 1m 32.864s
4. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m 32.952s
5. Scott Speed (Toro Rosso) 1.34.299s