The 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix (officially the 2006 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain on 12 March 2006. The 57-lap race was the opening round of the 2006 Formula One season and the third running of the Bahrain Grand Prix. It was won by the 2005 World Champions, Fernando Alonso and the Renault team. Ferrari driver and polesitter Michael Schumacher began his final season in Formula One (before his return with Mercedes in 2010) with second position. Kimi Räikkönen completed the podium after he finished in third place with the McLaren team, despite starting in last position.

The race was the first Grand Prix for future world champion Nico Rosberg, son of World Champion Keke Rosberg, who raced with the Williams team. He set the fastest lap of the race and, at the age of 20 years and 258 days, broke the record for the youngest driver to do so, which he held until Max Verstappen scored his first fastest lap, at age 19, at the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix. It was also the debut race for the BMW Sauber, Toro Rosso, Midland F1 and Super Aguri teams, and drivers Scott Speed and Yuji Ide. This race was also the debut of the debut of new 2.4 litre naturally aspirated V8 engine configuration in the sport which was by 10 of the 11 teams entered into the race and would remain in service in F1 until the end of the 2013 season.

This was the first race for the Midland, BMW Sauber, Toro Rosso, Honda F1 and Super Aguri teams, although only Super Aguri was a completely new team, the others all representing buyouts or rebrandings of existing teams. Along with Rosberg, Scott Speed and Yuji Ide were also making their Grand Prix débuts.

It also saw the début of the 2.4 litre (146.4 cu in) naturally-aspirated V8 engines which were used by all teams except Toro Rosso, who were still using the 3.0 litre (183 cu in) V10 engines that were used from 1995 to 2005, as the team's chassis, the STR1, was reused from the Red Bull RB1 from the 2005 season. This race notably marked the first time teams had fielded V8-powered cars, since the 1996 Japanese Grand Prix.

Ben Edwards left BBC Radio 5 Live after 2005 and was replaced by David Croft. Meanwhile on the ITV front, Jim Rosenthal was also gone and was replaced by Steve Rider in his first race as anchor since the 1997 European Grand Prix.

The bottom six teams in the 2005 Constructors' Championship and Super Aguri were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.

The race was the first run under the new 2006 qualifying rules, in which the one-hour session is split into three 'knock out' parts. The first part eliminated Kimi Räikkönen (rear wishbone failure) and Ralf Schumacher, who was caught out by the red flag after Räikkönen's accident and failed to set a competitive time, as well as the MF1's and the two Super Aguris. The second part saw fewer surprises, with the expected runners lining up for the final top 10 part. The result was that the Ferraris swept the front row.

At the start of the race, Fernando Alonso moved up to second in the first lap, only for Michael Schumacher to begin to pull away. Alonso was involved in a near collision with Schumacher's teammate Felipe Massa, who spun at the first corner. Massa was never a threat after this point, not helped by a delay in his pit stop to change tyres the same lap. Alonso's teammate Giancarlo Fisichella also played little part in the race due to an engine mapping problem which restricted power. He retired on the 21st lap due to hydraulic failure. A live team radio broadcast in which the team informed him that he would have to cope with the engine as well as he could led to Fisichella swearing in response; this incident resulted in future team radio broadcasts being time-delayed. To the surprise of few, Kimi Räikkönen quickly moved his way up the field, only being delayed by Jacques Villeneuve and Fisichella for a short period of time, before passing both men.