Sebastian Vettel stormed to pole position this afternoon at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
With his final lap of the day, Seb went into P1 on the grid ahead of the two Ferraris. Mark will start in sixth behind Massa and Alonso, Hamilton and Rosberg after the Australian’s final lap didn’t go quite as smoothly as planned.
After a rocky Friday, the boys in the garage worked late last night to ensure both cars were in top form for this afternoon’s Qualifying.
Paying tribute to the team Seb said: “It’s a big surprise to get pole; we didn’t know where we were with performance during the winter testing. Yesterday was a tough day for us, as we didn’t do as much running as we would have liked. It was a long night for the mechanics and there were some tired faces this morning, but everyone was still so keen. I knew we had a good car, Qualifying went smoothly and I’m very happy to be on pole. Thanks to the team, they have been so busy during the last month with a lot of testing – to be on top now is a nice feeling.”
And his performance pleased the team principal as well. Christian Horner said: “A brilliant job today. Sebastian drove faultlessly through all three sessions and delivered three laps that were good enough for pole; it’s testimony to all the hard work that’s gone in over the winter. The guys have worked wonders within Red Bull Racing and first on the grid is a great place to be starting the new race format tomorrow. Mark was looking good in the first and second qualifying sessions, but unfortunately he dropped a bit of time in the mid-sector of his last lap, which was the difference between the front row and sixth. I’m sure he’ll be strong tomorrow.”
Mark agreed, although disappointed, he had far from given up, saying: “I did my worst lap at the most important time today. It was going well until Turn 16, but it wasn’t so good from there on. Seb did a good job for pole position; there was more in the car than sixth today. It’s disappointing, but all is not lost and it’s a long race tomorrow.”
In the first session Seb recorded the second fastest time (1:55.029) and Mark was fourth quickest, in a period which saw Toro Rosso’s Alguersuari go out along with, as perhaps expected, the six drivers from the new teams.
The second session saw Sebastian start to establish his position, coming top of the timesheets with a best of 1:53.883 and Mark behind him in third. Among the casualties of the second period were Sébastien Buemi of Scuderia Toro Rosso.
So, we start the season's opening race in the best place position: front of the grid.
