Manama, Bahrain: German Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) edged past world champion Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) by two-tenths of a second to take pole position on Saturday for Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix. two-time world champion Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was third fastest.
Rosberg clocked a best time of one minute and 32.330 seconds in the final Q3 segment of the qualifying hour. It was his second career pole.
"Am I surprised," Rosberg admitted. "It wasn't really clear who was the quickest car over one lap.
"I was a bit happier than yesterday (Friday). We worked overnight to improve the car so I'm really, really happy. "It's a fantastic result. It's great for tomorrow (Sunday). Of course tomorrow will be a tough race with rear degradation especially, but we are in a good position for me.
"I really want to kick-start my season. It has been a rough ride in the first three races. Today was my first real qualifying. I'm OK for the race tomorrow,” said Rosberg.
Meanwhile Sebastian Vettel said, “I’m not disappointed with that. Well done to Nico, it was a strong lap and it was all his today. When I crossed the line I saw I was second on the screen and didn’t know how much I was missing to pole as the lap was fine. When I got told the gap to P1, it was clear that even with a perfect lap he was unbeatable today, but nevertheless I’m very happy. We managed to save some tyres throughout qualifying and it will be about tyre degradation tomorrow, so we’ll see what happens. It’s good to start from the front.”
Meanwhile Mark Webber, who finished at fifth position, said, “I would have like to have got a bit more out of the car in that session and been a bit further up, but seventh with a penalty isn’t the end of the world. We have a different tyre strategy to some of the others and it’s a long grand prix, so let’s see how we go. I’m proud to be starting my 200th grand prix tomorrow. When I was a youngster arriving in Formula One, I never thought I would be in the sport for so long. I have had some incredible highs and some tough lows, but that’s top line sport. I have learned a huge amount during that time, about myself and life in general, and the drive is still very strong for the sport; I still enjoy it a lot. It’s another number, but it would be good to get a good result to mark it.”