Vettel grabs Pole Position - Bahrain Qualifying
- Published on Mar 13th, 2010 by Adam Milleneuve
Blimey, how happy will the young Sebastian Vettel be today - after missing out on the title in 2009, he's started his quest to be 2010 World Champion with a superb pole position. Here's the full low down on how it all happened in qualifying...
Vettel's pretty happy with Pole Position - credit: Red Bull Media
Round 1 - 7 cars knocked out - the new boys will learn the hard way:
Unsurprisingly all the new cars were knocked out in the first round of qualifying. The Virgin team took the first victory in the new teams fight and the Toro Rosso of Alguersuari was the final car to be knocked out. Despite not completing an practice laps, Chandhok in the Hispania (HRT) car took part in round 1 and completed 7 laps, with his best time being 10 seconds off the pace of Alonso. Time sheet in full (ones in bold knocked out)
Round 2 - 7 cars knocked out - Button scrapes through:
It's a bit of mixed bag in round 2 - the other Toro Rosso was knocked out, along with the Russian rookie Vitaliy Petrov and one of the Force India cars. Both Saubers were knocked out, De La Rosa showing that his experience should be valued as he out qualified Kobayashi. Time sheet in full (ones in bold are knocked out)
Round 3 - Top 10 Shootout for Pole Position:
Vettel starts his championship campaign the best possible way with a commanding pole position, leading the Ferrari duo with Massa showing Alonso who's boss. Lewis Hamilton will not be happy, yes he qualified 4th, but at over 1 second slower than Vettel, it's a little worrying. Rosberg will be pretty chuffed though, lining up 5th in the Mercedes and more importantly ahead of his 7 times champion Michael Schumacher. Webber will be unhappy being 1.1seconds slower than Vettel with him being in the same car as the young German. Schumacher's comments about him being rusty ring true with a difficult qualifying session leaving him 7th.
After barely making it through round 2, Jenson Button lines up in 8th - a far cry from his all dominating start of the season performance last year. Kubica will be chuffed with his 9th place start in a Renault and Adrian Sutil proves again that Force India are one the up.
Full qualifying analysis and banter will follow later today...
