Sebastian Vettel fired a strong statement of intent to his fellow big name title rivals by storming to the first pole position of the season for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Red Bull had run under the radar for most of practice but not for the first time in his short career 22-year-old star Vettel, who finished last season as Formula 1’s form man, delivered under pressure when it mattered to beat the rapid Ferraris to pole.
In the first low-fuel battle for pole F1 has seen since 2002, pre-race favourite Fernando Alonso held pole after the first Q3 runs but Vettel blew that time out of the water by nine tenths of a second with 1m54.101s.
Alonso was then knocked off the front-row by his own team-mate Felipe Massa, the plucky Brazilian showing that not only has he got all his old speed back following his accident last year but that he is ready for everything Alonso can throw at him. ITV
Formula 1: Bahrain Grand Prix - Race Line-Up
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton fourth. Hamilton won his first battle of the Britons with team-mate Jenson Button at McLaren as the world champion struggled during the course of the afternoon and will start eighth, directly behind seven-times champion Schumacher.
The 41-year-old, on his comeback after three-and-a-half years in retirement, was again bettered by his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, as he was in all three practice sessions.
Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber starts sixth, with Robert Kubica in his Renault ninth behind Button, and Force India’s Adrian Sutil a fine 10th. Telegraph.co.uk
Eleventh-placed Williams driver Rubens Barrichello has a potential advantage over some of the drivers in the top 10, who must start the race on the tyres with which they set their qualifying time.
Barrichello and all those behind him, by contrast, can choose their starting tyres and may plump for the harder tyre, which is less effective over one lap but more durable over a race stint.
The Sauber team did not live up to the pace they showed in pre-season testing, with Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi lining up 14th and 16th. BBC Sport
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