The eagerly awaited start of what promises to be a scintillating Formula 1 season got underway in Bahrain today. With the return of the legendary Michael Schumacher and the Lotus and Senna names to the sport there was a huge amount of interest and high expectations surrounding the proceedings. Appropriately it was the Lotus of Jarno Trulli that was first out on track as the morning session got underway. The surprise performance of the session though came from the Force India of German ace Adrian Sutil who ended the session some 0.2s ahead of Ferrari's new recruit and ex double world champion Fernando Alonso. Robert Kubica was next up in third place for his new team Renault with Felipe Massa's Ferrari fourth fastest. The McLarens of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton closed out the top six fastest in the first session. The second session saw the proceedings dominated by Mercedes powered cars with Nico Rosberg fastest and making an early point to his illustrious and vastly more experienced Mercedes team mate Michael Schumacher who was third fastest. Lewis Hamilton was second almost a half second adrift of Rosberg with Jenson Button fourth. Sebastian Vettel was the fastest of the Red Bull drivers with team mate Mark Webber way down in 17th place after suffering drive shaft problems early on in the session. Williams rookie Nico 'the Hulk' Hulkenberg was a very creditable sixth fastest with his more experienced team mate Rubens Barrichello also new to the team back in thirteenth. The Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were seventh and ninth fastest sandwiching the impressive newcomer to the Renault team Vitaly Petrov. Pedro De La Rosa rounded out the top ten fastest in the Sauber. Just over four seconds separated the top sixteen. The Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen was the fastest of the new teams and drivers albeit over five seconds behind the leader and occupying eighteenth fastest place ahead of his team mate Jarno Trulli. The Virgin cars of Timo Glock and Lucas Di Grassi were next, with Bruno Senna in twenty second place for the new Hispania Racing Team and over ten seconds adrift of the fastest lap. Toro Rosso's Sebastian Buemi and HRT's Karun Chandhock failed to set a time, with the latter also unable to complete a lap in the first session. Controversy of the day went to McLaren with their 'innovative' cooling duct, said to increase top speed by stalling the rear wing. There is some speculation that the driver plays a part in its operation by covering a hole in the cockpit. Rival teams are already saying that they will have no alternative but to produce similar designs to prevent McLaren from stealing an advantage.