Toyota struggle as RBR, BMW and Williams impress.

With the establishment of the 'big four' in the shape of Renault, Ferrari, McLaren and Honda, many expected there to be a gulf between the leading eight and the mid-field in qualifying, but Red Bull Racing, Williams and BMW managed to cling onto their tails throughout the day.

Having been part of the leading group for some years, it is sad to see Williams aiming far lower than they would have done back in 2004. Indeed, it is a sign of the times in the team that they are more than content with 7th and 12th places. A front-row lockout would have been expected a few years ago.

However, with the young pairing of Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg, the questionable pace of the Cosworth engine and their switch to Bridgestone tyres before the winter giving the impression that they would be scrapping further down the field, the reality of winter and the first qualifying session proves that the overall package is in fact sound.

Webber proved quiet for the majority of qualifying, popping in a quick time by the end of the second session and earning him a place in lucrative top ten shootout, managing to grab seventh ahead of the other surprises of the session Christian Klien and Nick Heidfeld.

Webber though was not overwhelmed by his position. "Not a bad effort at all," the Aussie driver said. "We have still a lot of work to do but we could not really have asked for much more today, considering a few teams have been testing on this track in the last two weeks and have of course better an understanding of the conditions here. We will learn a lot more tomorrow in the race, let's see how it goes."

Rosberg's 12th place meanwhile was not representative of the impression he made through the first two sessions, taking the fourth quickest time through the chaos of the first 15-minutes but being edged out in the dying seconds of the second segment, duly responding by pushing to hard and spinning. While that spin can be put down to inexperience more than anything else, Rosberg certainly won a few fans by his confident showing.

"I am not too unhappy about today's result, even if qualifying has been a bit of a chaos, due to the new format, but I still enjoyed it. I could have done a little bit better, maybe not much. I was pushing very hard and spun on my fast lap, towards the end of the session, but it can happen.

"The fact I didn't make it to the final part of qualifying means I have some small advantage for tomorrow, since we will be able to put in the car as much fuel as we like. I am now looking forward to a reasonable race."

Arguably going in an opposite direction to Williams in terms of reputation following their giant-killing exploits in their debut year, Red Bull Racing also went the other way than the British team when it came to their preparations. Indeed, Williams proved faster than many expected and Red Bull failed to extract any speed before their new Ferrari engines overheated.

Still, qualifying came around and RBR managed to keep up with Williams, with both David Coulthard and Christian Klien sitting alongside their rivals on the grid. However, the result was not entirely to form as it was Klien who showed his more experienced team mate a clean pair of heels by sneaking into the top ten and then recording a time good enough for eighth.

It was an impressive performance for the Austrian who has clearly managed to get to grips with the Bahrain circuit, having also qualified in seventh place last year.

Coulthard on the other hand was not able to improve upon 13th place, struggling with the balance of his car as a blustery wind descended on the circuit in time for qualifying. He was pleased that Klien had shown what RBR could do though.

"It was obviously pretty tricky in the first 15 minutes when all the cars were queuing up after the session was re-started. In the second one, the car had too much oversteer and so, to be honest, I wasn't surprised that I didn't get through to the final ten. I wasn't comfortable with the car's balance and so couldn't attack the corners as I would have liked. Christian did well to get through though."

Having continuously played down their chances through the winter, BMW have been one of the 'unsurprising surprises' in Bahrain in that their pace has impressed many yet was not wholly unexpected.

Nick Heidfeld made it into the final ten and while he was down in tenth place by the end of the day, a mistake on his flying lap almost certainly prevented him from challenging Juan Pablo Montoya for a place in the top five.

Having hinted that they did not want Jacques Villeneuve to be driving for them this year, the Canadian rewarded his new employers loyalty by slotting in behind Heidfeld and was unlucky not to be joining his German team mate in the final 20-minute shootout, after Rubens Barrichello hauled his Honda just above him at the last moment.

Together with Robert Kubica setting the pace on Friday morning, BMW could be a team to watch as they gradually work to improve their still young outfit this year and if their impressive winter reliability can match their speed, points could be on the cards in their first race too.

However, for every team that has had made a jump into competitiveness compared to last year, there is always at least one that has taken a slump and qualifying easily revealed Toyota as the unlucky victim.

Having surprised many with their speed in 2005 compared to 2004, the contrast between 2005 and 2006 has proved even greater. Last year Toyota put their cars third and sixth on the grid, with Jarno Trulli following that up with his second podium position in a row.

This year however Trulli has to make do with a lowly 14th, while Ralf Schumacher fared even worse, being a shock loser in the first elimination process, meaning he will start the race in 17th place.

Indeed, Toyota have not proved as scintillating in winter testing than they did last year and after a poor opening day that left them scrapping for minor places, critics looked to have got their predictions about the teams pace right. Indeed, Schumacher admits that they need to improve quickly.

"A disappointing day, then, that confirms that we have hard work ahead to force our way up the grid. But it is very early in the season and the full picture of relative performance will only emerge after the first few races."

Trulli reiterated his team mates claim. "Still, our performance shows that as a team we have a lot of work to do to make it up to the level of the top teams."

Nonetheless, F1 2006 is still very young and following the chaos of the first session, qualifying is hardly representative of who will be the ones to look out for through the season and arguably even the race itself.

However, despite this, it has gone some way to confirming many people's suspicions about the coming season, in that Williams and BMW could spring a surprise, Red Bull are improving continuously and that Toyota are going to struggle to return to their impressive 2005 form. However, only a race - or maybe more - can determine who can rise up from the crowded mid-field to challenge the big guns...