Massa claims 100th pole for Bridgestone

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa has claimed Bridgestone’s hundredth pole position in Sakhir for the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix. It is the fifth pole position of his career and came after the Brazilian topped all three qualifying sessions with the entire field on Bridgestone Potenzas at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Massa will be joined on the front row for Sunday’s race by McLaren Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton who was the fastest driver in the morning practice session. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen will line up in third on the grid, alongside Fernando Alonso (McLaren Mercedes).

Kees van de Grint, Bridgestone Motorsport Head of Track Engineering Operations said: “It was inevitable that we would be on pole today but it is nevertheless good for us to take our 100th pole position in Formula One. We saw an exciting qualifying session where everyone used the medium compound Bridgestone Potenza for their fastest lap. Although we knew it would be a Bridgestone-shod driver taking pole, which driver it would be was not so clear. It was a close fight today between the Ferraris and the McLarens with the dark horse of the BMW fight there too. I hope that the weather and the competition is just as hot in the race tomorrow.”

Stats of the Day

Total amount of laps completed by all drivers: 657 laps Average number of laps per car: 30 laps Most laps by a driver: 44 – Jarno Trulli Fastest lap: 1m 31.359s - Massa in Q2 Compounds: hard and medium Number of pole positions on Bridgestone Potenzas: 100