Kubica takes maiden pole at Bahrain
Robert Kubica has secured the first Polish pole in F1 history, and at the same time the first BMW pole position since it joined F1 as a team. Felipe Massa will be in second place after a slight mistake. Both McLarens will be on the second row, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.
Nelson Piquet Jr. was the first to hit the track, quickly followed by Nico Rosberg. 10 minutes later, almost all have set a time until Takuma Sato goes of the track in the final corner. He was on the throttle a little too early and spun into the inside barrier, breaking the left rear suspension of his Super Aguri. Giancarlo Fisichella at the time also doesn't have a laptime recorded as he made a slight mistake in his first attempt and decided to abandon it.
With 4:49 to go, the stewards decided to red flag the session for first clear Sato's car off the track. After final attempts for most of the field, both Toyota drivers shine while Coulthard was just too late to put in his effort. He is knocked out together with Fisichella, Vettel, Sutil, Davidson and Sato.
Q2 was uneventful for McLaren, Ferrari and BMW who were easily in the right place for Q3. Rosberg and Trulli required two attempts while Alonso and Button just managed to stay ahead of Webber who is the unfortunate 11th. Together with him, Barrichello, Glock, Piquet, Bourdais and Nakajima are not required to run in Q3.
As for Q3, the FIA have implemented a new regulation so that drivers do not slow down too much in their in-laps. The governing body therefore set a maximum laptime of 1:39 to prevent the Malaysian qualifying incident with McLaren to happen again.
Initial attempts in Q3 show that Kubica is very close to Massa as their difference is only 11 thousands of a second. Hamilton is more than half a second behind at that time. The other BMW of Heidfeld is 6th and surprisingly is pulled into the pitbox after just that single attempt.
Hamilton manages to improve in his second attempt but so does Kubica. Massa on the other hand didn't make it and will be 2nd behind the Pole on pole.
Results
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Kubica | Bmw Sauber | 1:32.893 | 1:31.745 | 1:33.096 | 12 |
| 2. | Massa | Ferrari | 1:31.937 | 1:31.188 | 1:33.123 | 12 |
| 3. | Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:32.750 | 1:31.922 | 1:33.292 | 13 |
| 4. | Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:32.652 | 1:31.933 | 1:33.418 | 12 |
| 5. | Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:33.057 | 1:31.718 | 1:33.488 | 12 |
| 6. | Heidfeld | Bmw Sauber | 1:33.137 | 1:31.909 | 1:33.737 | 15 |
| 7. | Trulli | Toyota | 1:32.493 | 1:32.159 | 1:33.994 | 19 |
| 8. | Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 1:32.903 | 1:32.185 | 1:34.015 | 22 |
| 9. | Button | Honda | 1:32.793 | 1:32.362 | 1:35.057 | 17 |
| 10. | Alonso | Renault | 1:32.947 | 1:32.345 | 1:35.115 | 17 |
| 11. | Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1:33.194 | 1:32.371 | - | 12 |
| 12. | Barrichello | Honda | 1:32.944 | 1:32.508 | - | 12 |
| 13. | Glock | Toyota | 1:32.800 | 1:32.528 | - | 15 |
| 14. | Piquet | Renault | 1:32.975 | 1:32.790 | - | 15 |
| 15. | Bourdais | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:33.415 | 1:32.915 | - | 15 |
| 16. | Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 1:33.386 | 1:32.943 | - | 15 |
| 17. | Coulthard | Red Bull-Renault | 1:33.433 | - | - | 7 |
| 18. | Fisichella | Force India-Ferrari | 1:33.501 | - | - | 5 |
| 19. | Vettel | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:33.562 | - | - | 9 |
| 20. | Sutil | Force India-Ferrari | 1:33.845 | - | - | 6 |
| 21. | Davidson | Super Aguri-Honda | 1:34.140 | - | - | 9 |
| 22. | Sato | Super Aguri-Honda | 1:35.725 | - | - | 5 |
