Bahrain GP Qualifying: Four poles in a row for on-form Lewis Hamilton
Dominant Hamilton 0.4s clear of Vettel, who relegates Rosberg to row two; Ferrari in position to challenge Mercedes in race; McLaren's Alonso makes Q2 but Button to start last after Q1 breakdown
Tuesday 21 April 2015 11:57, UK
Lewis Hamilton displayed a blistering turn of speed to claim a dominant pole position for the Bahrain GP and continue his unbeaten start to qualifying in 2015.
For the fourth time in four events since his title defence began in Australia, the in-form Hamilton proved too quick for his rivals over a single lap with the scale of this particular performance heightened by the fact that under-pressure team-mate Nico Rosberg – the polesitter at Sakhir for the last two seasons – was beaten to the second front-row berth by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
Hamilton had already served notice of his pace in the W06 under the floodlights with an eye-opening lap in Q2 and on his final run in the Q3 shootout he went quicker still, with the world champion’s time of 1:32.571 six-tenths quicker than last year’s pole.
With Rosberg and the Ferraris battling in his wake on the timesheet, it was Vettel who emerged in second place with a lap some 0.411s adrift of Hamilton’s – the closest the Scuderia have been to Mercedes in a dry qualifying hour so far this season.
In the end Rosberg trailed in over half a second behind his team-mate, hanging onto third place from the other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen by a tenth of a second. "Not a great day for Nico Rosberg, half a second down on his team-mate," noted Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle.
Rosberg himself admitted he had been too cautious in a bid to conserve his tyres in qualifying and paid a heavy price.
“Just strategy today. I didn’t push enough in qualifying and I thought too much about the race. That would have been fine if I finished second to Lewis, but not finishing third," he bemoaned.
"I didn’t see that coming, I didn’t see Sebastian being that quick and I didn’t think I would struggle that much as a result. I got it wrong so I am definitely not happy."
But although Hamilton is now firmly in the ascendency at Mercedes and finally has a Bahrain pole position on his ever-burgeoning F1 CV, the threat posed by Ferrari only appears to be growing.
Indeed, the red cars are set to be even more menacing in Sunday's race with the SF15-T having appeared even quicker than the W06 during Friday's race simulations.
"They are very quick this weekend and are going to be tough to beat tomorrow," Hamilton said. "They have great race pace and hopefully with our positioning that does help. We will be taking all measures we can to make the tyres go as far as they do. But I think we are in a good position so looking forward to the fight."
Vettel, having beaten the two Mercedes in Malaysia and then pushed them for much of the race is China, is only too aware that Ferrari represent a stronger force over the longer distance: "For now very happy with the front-row and hopefully tomorrow we can have a good start and take it from there. I think in the race we maybe are a bit closer so we'll see what happens," he said.
The developing Mercedes v Ferrari storyline, however, masked the fact that once more the chasing pack remain a long way adrift of the current top two teams.
After being outqualified by Felipe Massa at the first three rounds, Williams’ Valtteri Bottas returned to something approaching his qualifying best to claim fifth, the Finn the only other driver to lap within a second of the flying Hamilton.
Massa will share row three with the sister Williams, ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and, to more than a little surprise, Nico Hulkenberg as Force India fared strongly on Saturday to return to Q3 for the first time in 2015.
Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz took ninth, sixth places ahead of team-mate Max Verstappen, with Romain Grosjean 10th for Lotus.
Meanwhile, McLaren-Honda's drivers experienced an evening of mixed fortunes. Fernando Alonso, aided by an eye-catching lap which placed him ninth in Q1, ensured the team reached Q2 for the first time in 2015 – although he eventually had to settle for 14th place on the grid.
However, Jenson Button’s already miserable weekend took another depressing turn in Q1 when his MP4-30 broke down for the third time in four sessions. Having been without a lap time on the board, the 2009 Sakhir winner will start from the very back of the field for Sunday’s night race.
The composition of the grid will not make much better reading for Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat and Lotus's Pastor Maldonado as the pair's difficult starts to the new season also saw them drop out in Q1. Maldonado was hampered by an engine problem having shown well during practice, but Kvyat had already endured a difficult weekend.
Bahrain GP Qualifying timesheet
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:32.571
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:32.982
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:33.129
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:33.227
5. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:33.381
6. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:33.744
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:33.832
8. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:34.450
9. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:34.462
10. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1:34.484
Out in Q2
11. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1:34.704
12. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1:34.737
13. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:35.034
14. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:35.039
15. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1:35.103
Out in Q1
16. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1:35.677
17. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1:35.800
18. Will Stevens, Manor, 1:38.713
19. Roberto Merhi, Manor, 1:39.722
20. Jenson Button, McLaren, No time