Sebastian Vettel takes pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix - Vettel returned to pole, during an unusual qualifying session
Published by Christine
This is F1Minute - Sebastian Vettel takes pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
A surprising qualifying session in Bahrain began with Caterham’s Heikki Kovalainen getting through to Q2. The top ten drivers in that first session had returned to the garage, confident in their times, but the track evolved quickly. Jean-Éric Vergne was heading towards the drop zone for the third race weekend in a row, whilst Heikki’s improvement pushed Michael Schumacher out of qualifying as well.
Into the second session, and Pastor Maldonado opted not to run. He faces a five place gearbox related penalty anyway. Felipe Massa dropped out of the top ten, whilst Romain Grosjean jumped up to third, pushing teammate Kimi Räikkönen out again.
Into the final ten minutes of qualifying, and Lewis Hamilton set the first benchmark. Fernando Alonso participated in the first run for pole, but remained in the garage for the final five minutes. Red Bull showed off their increased pace with Mark Webber jumping to P1 momentarily, before Sebastian Vettel took pole position from him.
