The current double world champion Sebastian Vettel has managed to obtain the pole position for tomorrow’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber was very close to give Red Bull a one-two start for the race but during the last few moments of Q3 McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton managed to secure the second spot on the grid.
Even though during the practice session Mercedes AMG had great results, the German team had a very disappointing qualifying session as last week’s Shanghai winner Nico Rosberg will begin the race tomorrow from the 5th place, while Michael Schumacher failed to go beyond Q1. In the first part of Q3, McLaren’s drivers were the fastest on the track but later on Sebastian Vettel managed to do his fastest lap in 1m 32.422s, being less than a tenth of a second faster than Hamilton.
Hamilton’s teammate Jenson Button is going to begin the Bahrain GP from the fourth place on the grid, while Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo had a great Q3, obtaining the sixth place on the grid which is the best result in his F1 career. He will start the race ahead of Grosjean from Lotus and Sauber’s Sergio Perez.
Fernando Alonso for Ferrari managed to qualify for Q3 but he did not do a flying lap, just like Force India’s Paul di Resta. Probably the biggest disappointment of today’s qualifying session was Michael Schumacher’s exit in Q1, a result caused by his Mercedes AMG but also due to Kovalainen’s better result.
Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen will start tomorrow the Bahrain Grand Prix from 11th place, followed by Kobayashi and Hulkenberg. It was yet another awful day for Ferrari’s Felipe Massa who managed to grab only the 14th place on the grid.
Here are the results of the 2012 Bahrain GP qualifying session:
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m32.422s 2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m32.520s + 0.098 3. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m32.637s + 0.215 4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m32.711s + 0.289 5. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m32.821s + 0.399 6. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m32.912s + 0.490 7. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m33.008s + 0.586 8. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m33.394s + 0.972 9. Fernando Alonso Ferrari No time 10. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes No time 11. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m33.789s + 1.367 12. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m33.806s + 1.384 13. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m33.807s + 1.385 14. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m33.912s + 1.490 15. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m34.017s + 1.595 16. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m36.132s + 3.710 17. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m34.865s + 2.443 18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m35.014s + 2.592 19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m35.823s + 3.401 20. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m37.683s + 5.261 21. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m37.883s + 5.461 22. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault No time 23. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m37.905s + 5.483 24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m38.314s + 5.892
