Qualifying at the Bahrain International Circuit

Nearly one year after teams were subject to intense protests in Bahrain, Formula One was back in town for the weekend. Just when the violence within the country seemed to be subsiding, it all flared back up again the moment the paddock was opened to set up.

Even with protests from the people and heavy road blocks all along the main roads, Formula One was here to stay.

Nico Rosberg snatched Mercedes’ second pole position in a row in Bahrain on Saturday, when his lap of 1:32.330s beat Sebastian Vettel’s best of 1:32.584s in the Red Bull.

Q1 started and first out on track was Esteban Gutierrez in the Sauber, with his German teammate Nico Hulkenberg joining him a few seconds later. What caught the surprise of many was the fact that the live feed decided to pan over and focus on the Marussia garage. Though the commentators where primarily discussing the young Frenchman, Jules Bianchi, it was a pleasant sight to see the smaller teams get dedicated television time.

Q1 seemed to be quite similar to all other weekends, with the usually suspects out after the firs session but what was quite interesting was the pair of Williams driver. Both Bottas and Maldonado set a time of 1:34.425; exactly the same. So what you may ask? Other driver’s have set identical times, but with the Williams teammates, what is so peculiar is the fact the only deciding factor of which of the two drivers would make it into Q2 was by who had crossed the line first. Bottas went through to Q2 simply by virtue of having set his time first.

The action continued in Q2, where Vettel was fastest on 1:32.746s. After Vettel the times came through in quick succession.

Vettel 1:32.746sRosberg, a mear 0.121 seconds behind Vettel with a 1:32.867sButton (the final driver in Q3) nearly a second behind with 1:33.702sGrosjean losing out on Q3 by six-hundredths of a second with 1:33.762sPerez came up short in the second McLaren with 1:33.914s (0.152 seconds later)Ricciardo, just six-hundredths of a second behind with a 1:33.974sHulkenberg was just two-thousandths of a second later on a 1:33.976s for Sauber.End of Q3 and Rosberg beat Vettel by 0.254 seconds with Alonso a further 0.083 seconds behind. Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber qualified fourth and fifth, but are demoted five and three places as a result of grid penalties.

That means Ferrari‘s Felipe Massa will start fourth ahead of Force India’s Paul di Resta. Adrian Sutil qualified seventh and will start sixth, ahead of Webber, Lotus’s Kimi Räikkönen who qualified ninth) will start in P8 ahead of Hamilton and McLaren’s Jenson Button.

Nico Rosberg	P1
Sebastian Vettel	P2
Fernando Alonso	P3
Felipe Massa	P4
Paul di Resta	P5
Adrian Sutil	P6
Mark Webber	P7
Kimi Räikkönen	P8
Lewis Hamilton	P9
Jenson Button	P10
Romain Grosjean	P11
Sergio Perez	P12
Daniel Ricciardo	P13
Nico Hulkenberg	P14
Valtteri Bottas	P15
Jean-Éric Vergne	P16
Pastor Maldonado	P17
Charles Pic	P18
Jules Bianchi	P19
Giedo van der Garde	P20
Max Chilton	P21
Esteban Gutiérrez	P22

Q1 107% Time 1:39.379

Note – Webber, Gutierrez qualified P5 and P18, dropped 3 and 5 grid places respectively for collisions at previous round. Hamilton qualified P4, dropped 5 places for unscheduled gearbox change.