Qualifying: Lewis 3rd, Heikki 5th

By Sam Cooper
April 5 2008

The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes formula one team have narrowly missed out on pole position for tomorrows Grand Prix at Bahrain. Lewis Hamilton took provisional pole position, with favourite Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica to finish their fastest lap, Massa made a mistake in the second sector of his flying lap, leaving pole position to BMW’s Robert Kubica.

The weather remained dry and warm throughout the three part session, with the first part interrupted by a red flag, with little under 5 minutes of the session remaining, Takuma Sato's Super Aguri span after hitting  rumble strip on the final corner, the Japanese drivers car bizarrely hit the barrier on the exit of the pit straight brining out the red flag.

Second placed Felipe Massa might face a penalty because of this, due to his fastest lap in the first phase of qualifying being set under yellow flags, though, its unlikely to happen but knowing some of the race officials anything could happen, so don’t be surprised if the Brazilian loses a few places by race day.

It was a fantastic qualifying session for BMW driver Robert Kubica, who managed to secure his first pole position of his career, the Pole almost got his first pole position at the opening Grand Prix in Melbourne, though running wide during the third sector limited that effort to second place.

This unexpected pole for the BMW driver, might cause problems for Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who desperately needs to improve his race performances, if he is to keep his drive at Ferrari next year. Felipe’s race strategies always have been based around qualifying relatively light, leaving him to control the race from the front, though because of Robert, this will be harder, as he’ll have to risk passing him during the race.

This might open up a chance for Lewis Hamilton, who qualified, in 3rd, on what we believe to be a slightly heavier fuel load, if you take into account the fact that Lewis is on the clean side of the grid, he might be able to overtake both Robert and Felipe at the start of the race.

Massa’s team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen, finished in 4th place; it is obvious that he’s running more fuel than the people in front of him. Heikki Kovalainen finished in 5th place, four tenths of a second behind pole man Kubica.

Nick Heidfeld finished in 6th place, with Jarno Trulli finishing in 7th place, with Nico Rosberg’s Williams in 8th position. Jenson Button surprised a lot of people by getting into Q3, by setting 5th fastest time in Q2, after a last gasp effort. Ex McLaren driver Fernando Alonso ended the three part qualifying session in 10th place.

Times are shown below.