Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel will start on pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix tomorrow, ahead of the two Ferrari drivers, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso, who qualified 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Vettel’s final qualifying lap was a 1:54.101, snatching pole position. Felipe Massa was 2nd in his first qualifying session since last season at the Hungarian Grand Prix, and Fernando Alonso was third. Massa said: “It is very nice to be back here, competitive and with a good direction. I feel really happy to be back after such a difficult time.”

Lewis Hamilton was fourth in the McLaren, and was ‘overwhelmed’ with the result: “I was actually surprised with that result. We generally don’t have the same pace as the Red Bulls and the Ferraris so I was really surprised when I came through. I am absolutely overwhelmed with that position, I think that’s great for us, a great starting point and I hope tomorrow we can just either keep that position or take one more tomorrow.”

Nico Rosberg qualified 5th, but said he was disappointed with his qualifying position, stating he thought he would be able to secure pole in the Mercedes.

Mark Webber was 6th, and Michael Schumacher 7th, in his first F1 qualifying session in 3 years. He said it “certainly felt a bit different” but that he’s not thinking about the race yet.

Jenson Button qualified 8th, but it is thought there was a technical problem with the MP4-25 which the McLaren team are trying to pinpoint.

In 9th was Robert Kubica in the Renault R30, setting a 1:55.885 in Q3. The last driver in Q3, qualifying 10th, was Force India’s Adrian Sutil. He is certainly one to watch however, as it is thought he is the only driver in the top 10 who qualified on the harder tyres, which are expected to last longer and perform better under the heavy fuel loads.

Rubens Barrichello was 11th, and is also one to watch, given that he will start the race on new tyres unlike the top 10 drivers. Vitantonio Liuzzi qualified 12th, and Nico Hulkenberg 13th. Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa was 14th with a Q2 fastest lap of a 1:56.237. De la Rosa insists that he could have improved his lap time, but not enough to get into Q3: “It was hard. We tried, but on my flying lap I overdrove and made a few mistakes,” de la Rosa said. “I wouldn’t have made it to Q3, that’s clear, but I could have improved my lap time. But we have to try.”

Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi will start 15th, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi and Renault’s Vitaly Petrov, who qualified 17th in his first ever F1 qualifying session, rounding off Q2.

Jaime Alguersuari has the unfortunate title of being the only established runner to be eliminated in Q1. Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock and Lotus’ Jarno Trulli were 19th and 20th, with their teammates Heikki Kovalainen and Lucas di Grassi being allocated grid slots 21 and 22.

Bruno Senna will start in 23rd position, and his HRT teammate Karun Chandhok last on the grid. Chandhok is certainly being added to my list of favourite drivers, as he put in an amazing drive, considering the only time he has had at all in an F1 car was Q1 in qualifying today. Despite this, he set a 2:04.904, losing under a second to his teammate, even though Senna had been able to practice in both sessions yesterday, and Saturday practice this morning.

Senna said that it will feel like a podium if both HRT cars finish tomorrow: “Obviously you can’t expect much performance from us,” the former GP2 Series race-winner said. “We had a car that went through some big changes in terms of balance. The car was very hard to drive in qualifying. But at the end of the day we managed to do all practice sessions and that is a big victory for us. It will be like being on the podium if we can manage to finish the race tomorrow with both cars in one piece.”

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