This day marked the opening of the fifth season of Formula One competition for Panasonic Toyota Racing. The opening race for the 2006 season was Bahrain, where the team captured their second podium for the season last year.
The first practice session started under comparatively cool temperatures, with the air temperature sitting at 29 degrees C and that of the track at 37 degrees C. Finishing fourth in the Constructors' competition last year meant that Panasonic Toyota Racing were unable to run their third driver in the session, which left Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli to complete the session alone.
As the condition of the track surface was not good during the morning, the team elected to reserve their mileage and grip strength, and as a result, Trulli completed just two laps and Ralf Schumacher just one. However, in the second session in the afternoon, both drivers started to work in earnest. Trulli was only able to complete 11 laps due to electronics problem, but his partner, Ralf Schumacher completed 18 laps in a positive start to the weekend's competition. At the end of the first day, Anthony Davidson (Honda) was in the top position.

Saturday saw the start of the second day of competition in the season opener, the Bahrain Grand Prix. Gusty and cooler winds than the previous day blew clouds of sand across the Bahrain International Circuit, making conditions far from favourable.
In the new system, qualifying brought about quite unexpected results for the team. In the first session, which was held for 15 minutes from 2pm, the red flag was brought out during Ralf Schumacher's time attack as a result of a problem with another machine, bringing the session to a temporary halt. He returned to the track once the session restarted, only to get caught up in congestion. As a result, he finished in 17th, which under the new rules meant the end of qualifying for him.Trulli made it through to the second session of qualifying; however, he struggled to get his tyres warmed up to the extent needed, leaving him unable to improve on his morning's time. He finished the second session in 14th.Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) secured the first pole position of the season with a time of 1'31"431.

The season opener for the past 10 years has been held in Melbourne, Australia in the southern hemisphere; however, this year, Bahrain in the Middle East became host of the opening race for the first time. At the same track last year, Jarno Trulli finished in second place in a strong performance, but this year's race was a different story, continuing in a similar vein as the previous day's qualifying. After having finished in 14th (Jarno Trulli) and 17th (Ralf Schumacher) in the qualifying, the team decided to use Sunday's race to collect data in an attempt to find out why they were unable to perform as they had expected. To that end, they settled on two different pit stop strategies for the drivers - Trulli with two stops and Ralf Schumacher with three.The formation lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix started 30 minutes later than the standard time at 2:30pm. Managing to stay clear of the confusion immediately after the start, the two TF106s proceeded through the first stage of the race in 14th (Ralf Schumacher) and 16th (Jarno Trulli). Ralf Schumacher completed his three pit stops without hitch, going on to finish the race in 14th.with team-mate Jarno Trulli taking in the chequered flag in 16th. Despite a result that was less than the team had hoped for, both machines completed the race and, in doing so, collected valuable data for the team. Next up, starting in four days time is the Malaysian Grand Prix - a circuit with which, after witnessing Panasonic Toyota's first podium finish last year, the team has a good affinity. Let's hope the team is able to make up for the disappointment from this weekend at Sepang.
After starting from fourth position, Fernando Alonso (Renault) clocked up his first win for the season, taking his career total to nine.