2010 Bahrain Grand Prix Race day at the Bahrain International Circuit

Lap 1: Webber's Red Bull is smoking heavily on a frantic opening corner.

Lap 1: Sebastian Vettel gets away and leads the field into Turn 1 ahead of Massa and Alonso.

Lap 1: The five red lights go out and the season is underway in Bahrain!

The first few rows are now in position. The rest of the field is forming up neatly.

We await the lights ...

Vettel makes the turn for home and leads the pack onto the start-finish straight.

They will also need to work the brakes so that they have good braking efficiency for the tricky first series of corners after the start.

The cars look fantastic as they weave and dart around, as the drivers generate heat in the tyres.

Vettel leads the field through towards the bumpy section at Turn 6 and towards the back straight.

The 22 cars that are on the grid have all left their positions.

The green light flicks on to signal the start of the formation lap. Sebastian Vettel answers the call and leads the field of cars away.

Engines fire with a minute to go.

Under three minutes to go now and the tyres are bolted on to all the cars - with the top 10 drivers forced to start on their qualifying sets

To remind you, both HRT F1 entries will start the race from the pitlane, as the team continue to work on the cars.

The ambient temperature is a roasting 35 Celsius.

There are five minutes remaining until the formation lap begins. The tension is building as we move closer and closer to the start.

Fernando Alonso is being strapped in to the F10 Ferrari for his debut with the Scuderia.

World champion Jenson Button is now getting comfortable in his McLaren, ready to begin his title defence from eighth on the grid.

Michael Schumacher climbs aboard the Mercedes and is strapped in.

The traditional Gulf Air flypast is now taking place. The Airbus A330 makes for a stunning sight as it skirts past the BIC tower.

This is a nervous moment for the teams, with no testing in such high temperatures they can't be sure the cooling will be adequate on these brand-new cars.

The national anthem rings out over the Bahrain International Circuit, played today by the Bahrain police band.

The pits are now closed, with 15 minutes to go before the start.

It is a packed grid, with the former champions mingling among the teams as they make final preparations to the cars.

Michael Schumacher is now on his lap to the grid, with the track temperature currently a sizzling 48 Celsius.

Nico Hulkenberg attacks the tricky middle section of the lap as he heads around to prepare for his first Formula 1 start.

Laps to the grid continue, with the majority of the field now in place on the start/finish straight.

The German starts from seventh place on the grid today. He qualified 1.4 seconds shy of the 1m54.101s set by polesitter Sebastian Vettel.

Down in the Mercedes garage, Michael Schumacher is getting himself ready before getting in the car.

Timo Glock tours along the back straight with the softer tyres on his Virgin, heading for the grid.

Jenson Button rolls out of the McLaren garage with the number one on his car. He joins the racetrack for the lap to the grid.

The pits are now open for the drivers to head around and form up on the first grid of the year.

There are a lot of things to check at this critical time. For starters, this is the first time that the cars have run today, so all functions on the car need to be checked. The drivers will want to get a feel for the handling of the car and current track conditions.

The all-important radio will need to be checked, and on a warm day like today the drinks bottle will hopefully be working so that the drivers can keep cool during the event.

Tyres

With the ban on in-race refuelling, strategy for this afternoon is completely up in the air. It will take a few races for the best plan to become clear, but testing has given a few clues on how it may play out.

With the exception of Adrian Sutil in the Force India, who used the harder tyres in Q3, all the drivers from the top 10 shootout are forced to start on the super-soft rubber they used to set their grid time.

On a full tank of fuel, weighing in the region of 160kg, those tyres aren't likely to last long in the blistering heat of Bahrain. We can expect pitstops from these drivers after around 15 laps, after which the car will lap considerably faster on fresh rubber. This will force others into reactionary stops, as now it is often better to pit before a rival rather than after.

Drivers outside the top ten can start on a new set of the harder tyres, running longer into the race before a single stop to change to the option compoud. Two stops are also possible, but only in the case of major tyre worries, as this involves getting in a lot of traffic with the one stop runners.

One year ago, polesitter Vettel would have been a solid bet to take the win, but with the new rules it all comes down to how well the Red Bull can manage its tyres - and whether the Ferrari pair behind have a better long run pace. Testing suggests that may well be the case, but we'll only find out in the heat of battle this afternoon.

Horner: GP a journey into the unknown

Lotus

Three new teams have entered the sport this year and all have struggled to some degree to get on the pace, which is perfectly understandable in this time of restricted testing.

Lotus Racing has generally been the best of the three new entrants so far. Drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen have qualified in 20th and 21st positions respectively and will be looking to make it to the end of the race with the hope to benefit from others having reliability problems to pick up a point or two.

Virgin Racing has suffered hydraulic problems throughout the pre-season tests, but is working hard to get on top of the issues. The team was generally a shade slower than Lotus in testing, but Timo Glock has given them a big boost this weekend by out-qualifying the Lotus pair. He starts today's race from 19th place with team-mate Lucas di Grassi in 22nd spot.

Hispania Racing has had by far the toughest time of any team in the championship so far. A late deal saved what was Campos Meta, and the team is here at the last minute - therefore no pre-season testing was possible.

Bruno Senna rolled the car out for the very first time during Friday practice and did well in the circumstances. However, there have been major problems on the other car of Karun Chandhok. The Indian debutant amazingly didn't get his chance to turn a wheel until qualifying after endless troubles, with gear selection hydraulics.

Overnight changes to the cars mean both HRTs will start from the pitlane and it will be a remarkable achievement if one makes it to the finish after such limited pre-race running.

Michael Schumacher

One man has dominated the pre-season headlines. Michael Schumacher returns to Formula One racing competition this afternoon at the age of 41.

The seven-time champion is back with master strategist Ross Brawn once again, as Mercedes makes its official return to Formula 1.

Things haven't run completely smoothly for the German. On Friday morning he was particularly unhappy with the set-up of his car, but further work throughout second and third practice saw his pace improve.

He eventually qualified in seventh position for his first race start since the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.

Here is the grid lineup for today's race: Pos Driver Team 1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 2. Massa Ferrari 3. Alonso Ferrari 4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 5. Rosberg Mercedes 6. Webber Red Bull-Renault 7. Schumacher Mercedes 8. Button McLaren-Mercedes 9. Kubica Renault 10. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 11. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 12. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 13. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 14. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 16. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 17. Petrov Renault 18. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 19. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 20. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 21. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 23. Senna HRT-Cosworth * 24. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth * * Starting from pitlane

Bahrain fans

Motor racing enthusiasts love to debate and discuss the action on track, and the live forum at the bottom of the screen is your chance to let everyone know your thoughts on events as they unfold at the circuit.

• Who will win the Bahrain Grand Prix?

• What can the McLaren drivers do from fourth and eighth on the grid?

• How quickly will the teams be able to change tyres during pitstops this afternoon? During the winter many suggested that we could see four wheels and tyres changed in around three seconds. Will any of them get near that?

• How will the three new teams get on this afternoon? Will any of the six cars finish the race?

Tell the world what you think.

Click the SHOW LIVE FORUM link in the red bar at the bottom of your browser window if you'd like to join the debate.

Bahrain parade

Almost sixty years ago at an airfield in Northamptonshire, England, the top drivers in the world embarked on a mission - that of becoming world champion driver.

Today, nothing has changed and the mission statement is the same, but along the way there have been many twists and turns. Triumph and tragedy, moments of heroism and heartbreaking failure - all of which pull us in to what is the greatest sport in the world.

As a celebration for the 60th anniversary of the FIA Formula One World Championship 18 of the sport's champions are on hand this weekend to demonstrate the machines that made the history.

AUTOSPORT has prepared a gallery special to mark this amazing occasion, as the champions of yesteryear turn back the clock one more time.

AUTOSPORT gallery - Formula One champions parade

Rene Rast has dominated the opening rounds of the Porsche Supercup, taking victory in both support events in Bahrain.

Rast, runner up in last year's series, led home double champion Jeroen Bleekemolen in today's race to get his title campaign off to the best possible start.

Former McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award finalist Nick Tandy took an impressive third this morning, getting his full season with Konrad Motorsport underway in fine style.

GP2 Asia

Giacomo Ricci took DPR's first GP2 victory since the 2005 season as he led from start to finish in the Asia series finale this morning. The Italian powered through from fourth on the grid at the start and soon put a gap on the field to take a comfortable victory by 5.3 seconds.

In a relatively static race, ART's Sam Bird and Coloni's Alvaro Parente settled into second and third by the first corner and remained there for the duration, giving Bird his first GP2 podium and Parente his best result since returning to the series.

The main GP2 Series begins at the Spanish Grand Prix in May.

Ricci ends DPR's victory drought

This morning's significant development is that Ferrari has made a precautionary engine change for both its drivers.

There is no penalty for switching to another unit in the eight-per-driver allocation. However, with the change being made under parc ferme conditions, the removed engines can now only be used in free practice.

Ferrari gives Alonso new engine too