F1: Lewis Hamilton At The Pole For Bahrain Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton claimed the Pole position for Mercedes just ahead of Sebastian Vettel for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Mr. Hamilton says he expects Ferrari will be ‘very hard to beat’ in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver took his 4th Pole in 4 races this season on Saturday, but fears the strong long-run pace Ferrari showed in practice. ‘They are very quick this weekend.”

Mr. Vettel has a fresh engine in Bahrain, he played down its significance.

“Obviously, for us it was always the plan that we do that for this event, so obviously not the plan for those guys (Mercedes) and others, probably, so I think in the end it is tough for all of the teams to manage the season with the engines we have available. Some teams maybe play around a little bit to use the engine more on Friday and a little bit less on Saturday and Sunday, but as I said, it was always the plan.”

The session began at twilight as the world prepared to watch a battle between Mercedes and Ferrari. Ferrari that was 1st out of the pits as Kimi Raikkonen navigated the circuit alone, then he was joined by Valtteri Bottas and Nico Rosberg.

In the early exchanges of prime-tire laps, Mr. Rosberg edged Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.

Halfway through Q1, the teams started to put the soft-compound tires on. P1 changed hands between Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, with the time falling to 1:33.928. The Williams drivers also showed their true pace by placing Valtteri Bottas in 2nd and Felipe Massa in 4th.

Sergio Perez was 1st to venture onto the circuit, fitted with a set of soft tires. The remaining drivers followed him.

Nico Rosberg came quickly the top of the standings, going faster than Lewis Hamilton’s Q1 time and setting a 1:33.878. Mr. Hamilton was not far behind, and stormed to a 1:32.669, beating Mr. Rosberg by well over a secs. Mr. Massa soon separated the 2 Mercedes drivers.

The Ferrari and Sauber drivers, along with McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, left it until the final 5 minutes to set lap times, putting on new sets of softs. Mr. Raikkonen and Mr. Vettel set times good enough for 2nd and 4th respectively and returned to the pits.

Unlike Q2, the Ferrari’s wasted no time in leaving the pit lane at the start of the Top 10 shootout. They lead the charge of cars for the 1st laps of Q3.

Poor opening laps for Ferrari on scrubbed tires saw them behind Lewis Hamilton, a surprise Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas at the end of the 1st laps. Mr. Vettel came just ahead of Raikkonen, followed by Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean.

During the final few moments of qualifying, provisional Pole position went to Sebastian Vettel, Kimi could only go 2nd quickest before Nico Rosberg split the 2 Ferrari’s. But Mr. Hamilton, the last man across the line, went a full 4/10ths a sec quicker to take Pole position. Mr. Vettel lines up 2nd ahead of Mr. Rosberg, Raikkonen, Bottas, Massa, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, Sainz and Grosjean.

Kimi Raikkonen says he was slightly disappointed to qualify 4th for the Bahrain Grand Prix, admitting that he could have pushed more.