Sebastian Vettel claimed pole position for Red Bull Racing for Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
A 1’54’’401 fastest lap time was enough for the German driver to bag the first pole of the year. He will be joined on the front row by Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton will line up on the second row.
Let’s have a quick look at how the session panned out:
Q1
Having completed only two laps in the the morning’s free practice session, Lucas di Grassi was the first out on track. The Virgin Racing driver tried to make up for the time lost and get more laps under his belt.
Karun Chandhok meanwhile was finally able to join the action and did his best not to get in anyone’s way as he got to grips with his car. The Indian driver completed seven laps.
He and teammate Bruno Senna were the first drivers eliminated at the end of Q1, along with the Virgin and Lotus drivers. Jaime Alguersuari also failed to make it through to Q2.
Fernando Alonso was once again fastest with Vettel and Sutil second and third.
Q2
The second part of qualifying proved a bit more exciting with the drivers having to fight it harder to make it through to Q3.
Sebastian Vettel was the first to leave the pits, as soon as the lights turned green, and set an impressive first timed lap of 1’54’’035 – a few hundredths faster than Alonso’s best effort in practice. No one was able to match the pace of the RBR driver who clocked a 1’53’’883 lap time on his final attempt.
He was nearly two tenths faster than Alonso. Webber put the other Red Bull up into third place.
Out went Petrov, Kobayashi, Buemi, De la Rosa, Hulkenberg, Liuzzi and Barrichello.
Q3
Race engineers had to make difficult decisions ahead of Q3 as the top 10 drivers will have to start the race with the tyres they put their fastest laps on. They could either go for pace on the softer tyres or race durability on the harder ones. And let’s just not forget that they will have to start the race on maximum fuel loads as refueling has now been banned.
Vettel did only one lap to seal pole position, lapping one tenth faster than Massa. Alonso took third spot. Those three were the only drivers to dip below the 1’55 mark.
Nico Rosberg was fifth fastest for Mercedes GP and outpaced his teammate Michael Schumacher. The German will line up on the fourth row of the grid alongside reigning World Champion Jenson Button.
Pos. | Driver | Team | Q1 time | Q2 time | Q3 time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
01 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Renault | 1.55.029 | 1.53.883 | 1.54.101 |
02 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1.55.313 | 1.54.331 | 1.54.242 |
03 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1.54.612 | 1.54.172 | 1.54.608 |
04 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren Mercedes | 1.55.341 | 1.54.707 | 1.55.217 |
05 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes GP | 1.55.463 | 1.54.682 | 1.55.241 |
06 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Renault | 1.55.298 | 1.54.318 | 1.55.284 |
07 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes GP | 1.55.593 | 1.55.105 | 1.55.524 |
08 | Jenson Button | McLaren Mercedes | 1.55.715 | 1.55.168 | 1.55.672 |
09 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1.55.511 | 1.54.963 | 1.55.885 |
10 | Adrian Sutil | Force India Mercedes | 1.55.213 | 1.54.996 | 1.56.309 |
— | ---------------- | --------------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
11 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams Cosworth | 1.55.969 | 1.55.330 | |
12 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India Mercedes | 1.55.628 | 1.55.653 | |
13 | Nico Hulkenberg | Williams Cosworth | 1.56.375 | 1.55.857 | |
14 | Pedro de la Rosa | Sauber Ferrari | 1.56.428 | 1.56.237 | |
15 | Sébastien Buemi | Toro Rosso Ferrari | 1.56.189 | 1.56.265 | |
16 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber Ferrari | 1.56.541 | 1.56.270 | |
17 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1.56.167 | 1.56.619 | |
— | ---------------- | --------------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
18 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso Ferrari | 1.57.071 | ||
19 | Timo Glock | Virgin Racing Cosworth | 1.59.728 | ||
20 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus Cosworth | 1.59.852 | ||
21 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus Cosworth | 2.00.313 | ||
22 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin Racing Cosworth | 2.00.587 | ||
23 | Bruno Senna | HRT F1 Cosworth | 2.03.240 | ||
24 | Karun Chandhok | HRT F1 Cosworth | 2.04.904 |