Sport

Rosberg storms to pole in Bahrain

Mercedes driver makes up for team-mate Hamilton’s grid penalty when topping qualifying for just the second time in his career

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg of Germany celebrates after taking pole position during the qualifying session for the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix at the Sakhir circuit. Photograph: Caren Firouz/Reuters
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg of Germany celebrates after taking pole position during the qualifying session for the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix at the Sakhir circuit. Photograph: Caren Firouz/Reuters
Sat Apr 20 2013 - 12:22

Nico Rosberg gave Mercedes back-to-back pole positions for the first time since their return to Formula One at the start of 2010.

Rosberg pipped reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel for Red Bull and Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari to claim only the second pole of his 132-race career for Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.

It is the first time since last year's race in China the 27-year-old will lead away the field, and the first time this season he has out-qualified team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Mercedes mechanics push the car of Lewis Hamilton in the pits during the third practice session of the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix. Hamilton's hopes of a second successive pole position disappeared on Saturday when he was handed a five-place penalty on the Bahrain Grand Prix starting grid for an unscheduled gearbox change. Photograph: Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters
Mercedes mechanics push the car of Lewis Hamilton in the pits during the third practice session of the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix. Hamilton's hopes of a second successive pole position disappeared on Saturday when he was handed a five-place penalty on the Bahrain Grand Prix starting grid for an unscheduled gearbox change. Photograph: Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters

Hamilton set the fourth fastest time, but a five-place penalty for a gearbox change ahead of qualifying at the Bahrain International Circuit means he will start from ninth.

READ SOME MORE

Hamilton suffered a left-rear tyre failure on his Mercedes on his in-lap at the end of final practice, which also resulted in damage to the suspension. As a consequence of changing the left-rear corner of the car, the team have also had to replace the gearbox, resulting in the grid penalty.

Red Bull's Mark Webber was fifth quickest, but like Hamilton, he faces a penalty of three places after colliding with the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne last weekend.

It means Felipe Massa will move up to fourth in his Ferrari, with the Force India's Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil lining up fifth and sixth.

Then comes Webber, who actually only loses two places courtesy of Hamilton, followed by Kimi Raikkonen in his Lotus who moves from ninth to eighth.

Rosberg admitted to being "a little surprised" at starting from pole, but naturally claiming to be "really, really happy" with "a fantastic result".

The question is whether Rosberg has the pace to go on and take the chequered flag and whether the tyres will hold up under the conditions.

"Tomorrow is going to be a tough day given the degradation of the tyres," added Rosberg. "I want to really kick start my season given the first three races which have been tough for me so far. It's difficult to say if we have enough to pace to win, but I will try, and I'm really looking forward to starting from first."

Vettel was far from disappoionted with second, especially after the time of Rosberg.

"Congratulations to Nico because it was a very strong lap," assessed Vettel. "When I crossed the line and I saw I was second I didn't know how much was missing from my lap. But then when I was told the gap to Nico it was clear, even with a perfect lap, he was unbeatable."

Alonso declared himself "very, very happy with third".

It is the third successive race Alonso will start from third, adding: "Normally we struggle a lot in qualifying, so this has put us in a strong position for the race."

Alongside Hamilton on the fifth row will be former team-mate Jenson Button in his McLaren.

In 11th and 12th, after dropping out in Q2 will be Romain Grosjean in his Lotus and McLaren's Sergio Perez, beaten by team-mates Raikkonen and Button respectively for the fourth straight race. Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo, who a week ago in China qualified seventh, will start 13th on Sunday, with team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne 16th.

Sandwiched in between the pair are Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.

In a remarkable twist at the end of the opening 20-minute Q1 session, Pastor Maldonado dropped out after setting the same time as Williams team-mate Bottas.

Posting a lap of 1:34,125, as the Venezuelan's time came after that of the Finn, it left Maldonado kicking his heels whilst Bottas took part in Q2.

Maldonado will start 17th ahead of Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez, with the Mexican out-qualified by Hulkenberg for the fourth consecutive race, and failing to make it into Q2 for the third time.

With a five-place grid penalty to serve for the race after running into the back of Sutil in Shanghai, Gutierrez will start at the back of the grid.

Caterham and Marussia naturally share the bottom four places, with Charles Pic a season's best of 19th since switching from the latter to the former for this season.

Either side of Caterham's Giedo van der Garde are Marussia duo Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton, with the 21-year-old Briton setting the slowest time in qualifying for the first time this year.