The first Bahrain GT Festival since 2004 gets underway today at a typically sunny Sakhir International Circuit.

The DSC Editor bumped into a smiling Stephane Ratel in pitlane as the cars for the GT4 International Cup emerged from the support pitlane (Where they are garaged) into the main pit lane to start the first free practice session, the SRO founder clearly happy with the look and feel of this brand new event which SRO are operating under license from the FIA.

The main pitlane houses the full FIA GT Nations Cup caravan, though the entries for Russia and Germany from Rinaldi Racing are delayed en route, 16 cars here as this is typed.

(Update, both cars are in Bahrain and clearing Customs this morning, the team hope to have the cars on track later today).

The GT4 field has plenty of variety, 10 marques represented in the 21 car field, all of which were on track for FP1.

The Nations Cup field makes for a colourful display, some excellent liveries amongst the Bakers Dozen here thus far.

Today’s track action sees the first Free Practice sessions for both of the contemporary fields, plus the Bahrain Classic Challenge with a gaggle of 1960s GT machinery here too.

After the first public laps for the brand new McLaren 720S GT3 mid-afternoon we move into qualifying, 15 minutes for the Nations Cup at 16:05 local top set the grid for the first of two qualifying races followed by 15 minutes for the GT4 International Cup at 17:10.

The Classics qualify at 18:15 before the first Qualifying race (60 Minutes) gets underway under the lights at 19:30.

The grid for the Main Race on Saturday evening is set by combining a points total amassed by all entries across the two qualifying races.

You can follow the action via www.FIAGTNationsCup.com and on the GTWorld YouTube channel with all qualifying and races covered live.