Ferrari drivers on top in Bahrain

The Ferrari pair were separated by less than two tenths of a second, although Massa completed nearly double the amount of laps of his new teammate.

Both drivers set their fastest laps at the end of the day, while completing ten-lap stints. The Ferrari looked very fast of the straights of the Sakhir circuit, setting a top speed five km/h faster than McLaren and eight more than Honda.

Jenson Button was an encouraging third quickest for Honda, although he did lose time in the morning when his car stopped on track with throttle problems.

Lewis Hamilton followed his countryman with the fourth quickest time, while Button's teammate Rubens Barrichello was fifth quickest with his best time from the morning session.

Pedro de la Rosa was next up for McLaren, while Sebastian Vettel was the first of the BMW drivers with the seventh best lap.

The German driver enjoyed a trouble-free day and managed to complete his programme, unlike teammate Nick Heidfeld, whose session was cut short due to technical problems.

Jarno Trulli was eighth quickest for Toyota ahead of Heidfeld.

Anthony Davidson was 10th fastest for Super Aguri, while Heikki Kovalainen was the top Renault driver after he completed the most laps of anyone during the day and set the 11th best time.

"The track conditions were pretty good straight away this morning, and that allowed us to begin our programme immediately," said Kovalainen.

"We did the planned race distance without any problems, which was a good start, and we then worked on car set-up, which gives us a good basis for the rest of the week."

Most of the drivers set their best times in the afternoon session, except Rubens Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher and the Renault duo of Kovalainen and Nelsinho Piquet.

There were a total of five red flags during the session, the first caused by McLaren's de la Rosa, who stopped on track with an oil leak. Trulli and Heidfeld suffered gearbox problems, while Button was hindered by a throttle-related issue.

Mark Webber and Vettel caused the final two red flags of the session, which was extended by 15 minutes.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:31.766   86
 2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:31.901   47
 3.  Button        Honda                (B)  1:32.099   83
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:32.182   83
 5.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  1:32.570  101
 6.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:32.621   47
 7.  Vettel        BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:32.652  104
 8.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:32.787   33
 9.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:32.810   49
10.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:32.996   76
11.  Kovalainen    Renault              (B)  1:33.139  113
12.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:33.816   92
13.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:34.077   27
14.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:34.595   31
15.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  1:35.265   35
16.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:36.345   25

All Timing Unofficial