Qualy report: F1's Pole grabs first F1 pole

Saturday 5th April 2008

Robert Kubica grabbed his first ever Formula One pole position in Bahrain on Saturday when he edged Felipe Massa in the all-important final segment.

Kubica's pole position marks the first time in 22 races that F1 has seen someone other than a Ferrari or McLaren driver take the coveted grid slot.

Massa will be ruing his middle sector error that cost him vital tenths and ultimately the pole position that he looked a shoe-in to grab.

Lewis Hamilton will start from third place on the grid ahead of Championship rival Kimi Raikkonen.

Weather Conditions
Sunny, dry, in breezy conditions with an ambient temperature of 29C, track temperature of 44C

Qualifying 1
In Saturday practice there had been just a second separating 2nd and 17th places, but not everybody had been trying their hardest as Nico Rosberg's Williams-Toyota topped the timesheets.

The resurgent Nelson Piquet set the first P1 time in Q1 with a 1:34.945, reduced by Rosberg, Trulli (who put in two laps on hard tyres) and then Hamilton, who also went for two laps on hard tyres claiming P1 with a 1:32.750.

This was soon put into perspective by a scorching run from Felipe Massa who set all the timing screens to purple with three fastest sectors, the only problem being that he recorded the fastest time of anyone in the final sector, driving through a waved yellow flag.

Takuma Sato had lost control of his Super Aguri in the final turn and spun it harmlessly to the inside of the track. Massa should have lifted in response to the flag but kept his foot in. In the past Mika Hakkinen got round the problem by waving at the marshals. Massa kept going but received no penalty from the stewards, indicating that yellow flags are no longer an absolute instruction to drivers (which some will view as questionable logic).

The Brazilian was far and away the fastest driver in Q1 which was mystifyingly red-flagged to recover Sato's car.

With over four minutes of the session still to run the drivers with some serious work to do were, from 13th to 22nd: Piquet, Alonso, Trulli, Glock, Vettel, Coulthard, Sutil, Davidson, Sato, Fisichella (still to set a time).

With the track declared open again, the back end of the grid set out to nail a time on soft tyres. Mark Webber came home in 7th for Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel 12th which would surely be demoted (and was), Rosberg in 5th, Coulthard in 10th (again looking vulnerable), Glock then went 4th, Piquet 7th, Trulli a remarkable 2nd, Alonso 8th, Davidson 19th, Nakajima 13th, Barrichello 9th, Fisichella 18th and Button an astonishing 5th.

Out of the mellee Nakajima and Bourdais scraped through in 15th and 16th, eliminating:

17. Coulthard

18. Fisichella

19. Vettel

20. Sutil

21. Davidson

22. Sato

Coulthard was the biggest loser, though team-mate Mark Webber had only got through in P14.

Qualifying 2
With the times being tight, no-one bothered to try the hard tyres in Q2. Trulli set the first meaningful P1 time of 1:32.159, four tenths quicker than team-mate Glock.

Lewis Hamilton reduced it to 1:31.922, with Raikkonen taking P2 behind him. Felipe Massa then decimated the P1 time with a confident 1:31.188, with Kovalainen slotting into P2, Kubica in P3 leaving Hamilton P4 and Raikkonen P5.

These five would sit out the final few minutes as everyone from Trulli in 6th to Nakajima in 16th took to the track. Both Toyota drivers maintained their positions in 6th and 9th places, Webber jumped to 9th, Alonso then took 9th place off him and Button grabbed 10th. Rubens Barrichello could only manage 12th place as Heidfeld improved from 8th to 4th but didn't drop anyone out of the top 10. Piquet's 14th place time was too little too late. So the drop zone consisted of:

11. Webber

12. Barrichello

13. Glock

14. Piquet

15. Bourdais

16. Nakajima

The big loser was Williams-Toyota driver Kazuki Nakajima. With team-mate Nico Rosberg easily qualifying inside the Top 10, finishing only in P16 was not what the team wanted, with Glock and Piquet a lot closer to their respective team-mates Trulli and Alonso.

Qualifying 3
With the cars fully fuelled for the race, times took a step backwards. In the final ten minute Q3 session Nico Rosberg's first P1 time was 1:34.776, reduced to 1:34.662 by Nick Heidfeld.

Lewis Hamilton was the first serious pole contender putting in a not entirely convincing (or error free) 1:33.651 to take P1. Robert Kubica smashed this with a 1:33.350. Felipe Massa, who had been so dominant earlier, was a whisker inside it at 1:33.339 to take provisional pole while team-mate Raikkonen clearly had more fuel on board back in P5 behind Kovalainen.

The cars kept the same order for their second runs and so it was Hamilton who crossed the line first. He'd has a tentative first sector, but turned the screen purple for his sector 2 and swooped inside Massa's pole time to take an unexpected P1. Robert Kubica wasn't finished, though and battled handling problems to set pole time with a 1:33.096.

Massa having been the master of Bahrain so far got stuck behind a fast (but not fast enough) Rosberg and was 0.4 slower than Kubica in the middle sector. Bizarrely it still showed up as a personal best time through that sector. He crossed the line with a disappointing 1:33.123 to finish P2 consigning himself to the dusty side of the grid.

Raikkonen improved to P4, Kovalianen retained P5 and a more heavily fuelled Heidfeld (we presume) was a lot further back in P6.

It should prove to be an interesting first stint tomorrow. We will see how Robert Kubica handles pressure, and how easily Massa and Raikkonen can get off the dusty side of a dusty grid in P2 and P4. And also, how soon everybody comes in for fuel. Given Ferrari's superior grip and their kindness to rear tyres on an abrasive surface, it is Raikkonen who may well be the best placed.
Frank Hopkinson

Times
01 R. Kubica BMW 1:33.096
02 F. Massa Ferrari 1:33.123
03 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:33.292
04 K. R�ikk�nen Ferrari 1:33.418
05 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:33.488
06 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:33.737
07 J. Trulli Toyota 1:33.994
08 N. Rosberg Williams 1:34.015
09 J. Button Honda 1:35.057
10 F. Alonso Renault 1:35.115
11 M. Webber Red Bull 1:32.371
12 R. Barrichello Honda 1:32.508
13 T. Glock Toyota 1:32.528
14 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:32.790
15 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:32.915
16 K. Nakajima Williams 1:32.943
17 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:33.433
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:33.501
19 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:33.501
20 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:33.845
21 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:34.140
22 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:35.725