While yesterday marked the first day in which cars took to the track for the 2010 FiA Formula 1 World Championship, today was the first day where we actually got to see who had what in terms of outright performance. Qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix was some of the most exciting action I had seen in terms of grid position in some time.
Sebastian Vettel would claim his sixth career pole position in a most spectaculor fashion by beating second place Felipe Massa by a tenth of a second. The young German smashed Fernando Alonso’s initial charge to pole by .9 seconds. Speaking of Alonso, Fernando will start P3 on the grid with a solid debut in the Ferrari giving the Italian squad two cars in the top three, a feat that they did not achieve in 2009.
The McLaren Mercedes outfit still claims the car is not fast enough as Hamilton will start P4 with Jenson Button debuting for McLaren in the 8th grid position. The Mercedes GP squad looked good early on but would suffer during Q3 and manage to put Nico Rosberg in the 6th position and Michael Schumacher returning to Grand Prix racing with a 7th position starting spot. The same qualifying result as his first ever attempt as an F1 rookie. Schumacher claims that he needs to settle into a rythm but says he will be in the swing of things shortly. The seven times champion had been complaining of understear all weekend leading into the qualifying effort.
As for the new teams, the Sauber Ferrari duo took top honors. Pedro would finish P14 and Kobayashi P16. If you don’t count the Saubers as a new team, then look all the way down to P19 for Timo Glock and his Virgin F1 car. They were the fastest of the brand spanking new teams. Most of the brand new teams would finish about 6 seconds off the pole pace with the HRT entrants finishing nearly 10 seconds off of the pole pace.
The teams will fill up completely on gas and use the same tires they used for Q3. That combination teamed with the first race first corner will make for some amazing collisions come tomorrow morning. Keep it here at the paddock as we will give a post race wrap up tomorrow. LETS GO RACING!
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:55.029 1:53.883 1:54.101
2. Massa Ferrari 1:55.313 1:54.331 1:54.242
3. Alonso Ferrari 1:54.612 1:54.172 1:54.608
4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:55.341 1:54.707 1:55.217
5. Rosberg Mercedes 1:55.463 1:54.682 1:55.241
6. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:55.298 1:54.318 1:55.284
7. Schumacher Mercedes 1:55.593 1:55.105 1:55.524
8. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:55.715 1:55.168 1:55.672
9. Kubica Renault 1:55.511 1:54.963 1:55.885
10. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:55.213 1:54.996 1:56.309
11. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:55.969 1:55.330
12. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:55.628 1:55.653
13. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:56.375 1:55.857
14. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:56.428 1:56.237
15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:56.189 1:56.265
16. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:56.541 1:56.270
17. Petrov Renault 1:56.167 1:56.619
18. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:57.071
19. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:59.728
20. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:59.852
21. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 2:00.313
22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 2:00.587
23. Senna HRT-Cosworth 2:03.240
24. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 2:04.904
Time to bring back the 107% rule?
Agreed Doug. The fact HRT made the grid is starting to be overshadowed by their ridiculous pace. I was not expecting much but this almost presents a safety hazard.