Bahrain GP Race - Button dominated the race

Toyota aced the front row with Jarno Trulli claiming their first pole position since the Japanese Grand Prix four years ago ahead of team-mate Timo Glock. As expected however, both TF109’s were lightly fuelled and it was Jenson Button who made best of the situation to take control of the race following the first round of pitstops.

It was a fairly routine race, the first of the season not to feature a safety car, but the battle for the race victory was fairly straight forward for Button as Glock got the jump on Trulli and led the field in the early stages but then opted to run the harder prime tyres during the second stint and quickly fell away from the Brawn Mercedes.

Toyota’s strategy allowed Sebastian Vettel to get the jump on Trulli in the second and final stop and the Red Bull Renault racer would finish in second position, withstanding the late race pressure from Trulli back on the softer option tyre.

The opening lap was key to Button’s success as he initially lost position to Lewis Hamilton who made best of his KERS-equipped McLaren Mercedes off the line, but a brave move from the Brawn driver later in the lap daw him regain the position and therefore allow him to tail the Toyota duo to the first round of stops...

Full report to follow...

Toyota celebrating front row slot

Toyota today secured their first pole position since a light fuel run gave Ralf Schumacher the team the number one grid slot back at Suzuka in 2005.

Both Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock have had strong runs in race conditions and qualifying in the first three rounds of the new season but today at the Sakhir circuit everything clicked for the German-based squad as Trulli claimed the pole, the fourth of his career, from team-mate Glock.

"It wasn’t an easy qualifying I think for everyone but for me it made everything more difficult as after the first run we found out a couple of troubles on my car especially I was struggling with the brakes," the pole-sitter explained. "The pedal was getting longer and longer and I was not able to brake the way I wanted. Nevertheless I did not give up as I knew I had a good car and I could fight for pole, so it was really nice to end up with first and second for the team especially for Toyota.

"To be honest I did not feel very confident for the qualifying lap," Trulli continued. "I have been working quite a lot more on the race pace and I felt more competitive and this is why probably I am on pole as today when we fuelled the car, it felt better."

While Trulli celebrates the pole, it is also a special day for the hard-working team.

"We're obviously delighted with today's result," said the man charged with the TF109 chassis, Pascal Vasselon. "We have been competitive throughout the weekend so we were targeting pole and things went as expected - though the gap to the cars behind us is a bit bigger than we anticipated.

"Tomorrow's race will be very interesting because the tyre situation generates huge differences between the two specs and it opens windows for very different strategies. We already saw yesterday that our pace over one lap and our consistency over long runs has been good. Now we have to convert this perfect start into a result tomorrow."

Timo Glock is currently riding high in the drivers' championship with ten points and fourth position overall. Now in his second full season of Formula One with the team, the German racer is looking to capitalise on his front row starting position.

"We found quite a lot overnight as we struggled yesterday with the brakes quite a lot," he said. "You know overnight we did the right changes to the car and I was really, really happy this morning. I was quite surprised that I was still quickest at the end and I was quite happy for qualifying. I knew when I crossed the start-finish that it would not be enough for Jarno as he is really, really good in qualifying, especially in Q2 getting everything out of the fuel load. I had one mistake in it when I lost a bit of time but at the end I think it would not have been enough for pole but I am happy for the team."

The final word goes to Jarno Trulli. "I feel especially confident for tomorrow. I should not have any problems apart from the fact that we need to analyse the brake and see the situation there."

Bahrain GP Qualifying Weight - Toyota running light to secured front row

Toyota aced the front row of the grid for the Bahrain Grand Prix today with Jarno Trulli taking the pole position from team-mate Timo Glock. Trulli secured the top spot with a best time of 1:33.431s with Glock just under three tenths of second adrift while third placed man Sebastian Vettel just under six tenths off the ultimate pace.

This evening the FIA published the qualifying weights and for the top ten runners they are now locked into that fuel level for the first stint of the 57-lap Grand Prix. As a rule of thumb, 10kg of fuel lasts four to five laps while 10kg of fuel slows the car by roughly 0.3s a lap – depending on the circuit type and length.

Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli have the lightest fuel loads on board with their Toyota TF109’s weighing in at 642kg and 648.5kg respectively while third placed man Vettel has some 16kg fuel on board than Glock and ten more than pole-man Trulli.

Assuming sandstorms do not hit the desert region as feared, the Chinese Grand Prix winner should therefore be in a position to shadow the Toyota duo and wait for them to pit before putting in a string of hot laps as his fuel level burns down to take the lead following his first stop.

This of course is all hypothetical as Vettel could be eliminated at the first turn or make a poor start, but it’s clear that Toyota will be forced to pit first while the likes of Kimi Raikkonen, starting tenth on the grid, will be running a very long first stint.

As ever, we shall see on race day.

Bahrain - Qualifying Weight (kg)
1 . T. Glock - Toyota TF109 - 643.0
2 . J.Trulli - Toyota TF109 - 648.5
3 . R. Barrichello - Brawn Mercedes BGP 001 - 649.0
4 . F. Alonso - Renault R29 - 650.5
5 . G. Fisichella - Force India Mercedes VJM02 - 652.0 *
6 . J. Button - Brawn Mercedes BGP 001 - 652.5
7 . L. Hamilton - McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 - 652.5
8 . M. Webber - Red Bull Renault RB5 - 656.0 *
9 . S. Vettel - Red Bull Renault RB5 - 659.0
10 . F. Massa - Ferrari F60 - 664.5
11 . S. Bourdais - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR4 - 667.5 *
12 . N. Rosberg - Williams Toyota FW31 - 670.5
13 . K. Raikkonen - Ferrari F60 - 671.5
14 . N. Piquet - Renault R29 - 677.6 *
15 . S. Buemi - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR4 - 678.5 *
16 . H. Kovalainen - McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 - 678.5 *
17 . A. Sutil - Force India Mercedes VJM02 - 679.0 *
18 . K. Nakajima - Williams Toyota FW31 - 680.9 *
19 . N. Heidfeld - BMW Sauber F1.09 - 696.3 *
20 . R. Kubica - BMW Sauber F1.09 - 698.6 *

* Declared weight (outside of top ten)

Vettel is riding high

Sebastian Vettel is riding high following his superb pole position and race win last weekend in Shanghai. Today in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix the Red Bull Renault racer qualified third behind the Toyota duo of Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock.

"I think it was a good session for us," the young German racer said. "I think we could see already in Q1 that it was very tight. It was not enough to do one run on the prime, so I think everybody had to put the option on. The whole field, we could see already this morning, is very close together. But to come back I think it was a smooth qualifying session for us, we did not have any problems."

"We have a very, very quick car," Vettel continued.

"In Q2 we only needed one run and we still managed to stay quickest, so that was very good. Even the circuit was improving. But I think in Q3 the two Toyotas today were just a bit too quick. I am looking forward to tomorrow though. I reckon they will pull in a bit earlier but it is a long race. Let’s see...”

Three places drops for Sutil on blocking Webber

Stewards at the Bahrain Grand Prix have penalised Adrian Sutil by dropping the Force India driver three places down the grid ahead of Sunday's race.

The German, despite qualifying a best ever 16th at the Sakhir track, was found guilty of impeding Red Bull's Mark Webber in the first round of qualifying. Sutil drops to 19th, promoting Webber to 18th.

"Mark was on a flying lap, but I didn't know that. I just tried to stay in my position to get a clear start to the lap," the 26-year-old, who apologised to Webber in person on Saturday, said.

Webber, whose team-mate Sebastian Vettel qualified third, said the block ruined two of his decisive flying laps in the session.

"I had nowhere to go in the last corner of my first lap and then Sutil slipstreamed past me for the start of my second, so my race is screwed," he said.

Brake concern for Trulli

Bahrain pole sitter Jarno Trulli admitted after qualifying that he is concerned about an issue aboard his Toyota.

The Italian headed the Japanese team's first ever front-row lockout in the Sakhir desert, but revealed afterwards that his brakes were not working properly.

"I was struggling with the brakes, the pedal was getting long and I was not able to brake the way I wanted," said Trulli, who also put his Toyota on pole with very light fuel at Indianapolis in 2005.

The problem did not stop the 34-year-old from emerging quickest from Q3, but admitted he is concerned ahead of Sunday's 57-lap race.

"We need to analyse the data to see if we have a problem with the brakes, it is a bit of a worry," Trulli said on Saturday.

Another worry might be strategy, which will become clearer when the FIA publishes the car weights later this afternoon.

Red Bull's Christian Horner said after qualifying: "I think they (the Toyotas) might be three-stopping. We'll find out later I suppose."

Hamilton done excelent in qualifying session

McLaren Mercedes has enough issues to deal with away from the circuit without problems during the Grand Prix weekend. Today however in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix the team put in its best performance of the season with Lewis Hamilton lining up fifth in his ever-improving MP4-24 package.

“We have been pushing incredibly hard over the last couple of months and this is a result of all our hard work," said Hamilton as he split the once all-conquering Brawn Mercedes duo. "I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved: firstly, it was good to get into the top ten, then it was even better to battle inside the top ten! We’ve got a similar pace to some of the guys in the top five; as long as everything goes smoothly we should be able to get a top five finish tomorrow. I can almost see pole position now – and I’m really looking forward to getting there soon!”

Hamilton's view was backed up team-mate Heikki Kovalainen as he targets a points paying position from 11th on the grid and Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh.

“After our top-ten qualifying position in Shanghai last weekend, today’s performance once again shows that we are continuing to make progress with MP4-24," he said. "Lewis’s top-five position is a fantastic achievement and, considering he began the first race of the season from 18th on the grid, a fantastic indicator of just how much progress the team has made."

"Of course, while our qualifying positions mark the team’s best Saturday performance of the season, they were made without compromise to our race pace; both Lewis and Heikki are well placed to pick up some more points for the team tomorrow.”

Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Vice President went on to explain that the stop-start nature of this 5.412km circuit play into the hands of the team as they can take advantage of their strong and so far trouble free Kinetic Energy Recovery System.

Bahrain GP Qualifying - Trulli on pole for Toyota

Toyota had already shown impressive pace in practice ahead of qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix and were one of the three teams to spend two week’s testing at the 5.412km circuit in the off-season. The hard work paid off handsomely for the German-based squad today as Jarno Trulli stormed to pole position from team-mate Timo Glock.

As ever, we do not know the fuel loads until later today, but the TF109 package looked strong and Trulli put in a faultless performance to stop the clocks in 1:33.431s, just under three-tenths of a second clear of Glock.

While Toyota celebrate a superb qualifying result - and their first pole since Suzuka 2005 - Chinese Grand Prix victors Red Bull Renault had a very mixed day with Sebastian Vettel qualifying a solid third while team-mate Mark Webber fell at the first hurdle courtesy of some inattentive driving from Adrian Sutil.

Championship leader Jenson Button lines up fourth and was disappointed with the qualifying pace of the Brawn Mercedes while team-mate Rubens Barrichello was sixth best in the second BGP 001. Defending champion Lewis Hamilton meanwhile enjoyed his most competitive qualifying session of the season as he split the Brawn duo with the fifth fastest time in his McLaren Mercedes.

Fernando Alonso lines up seventh in the leading Renault while team-mate Nelson Piquet was at least able to make the second round of qualifying for the first time this year and was 15th fastest in his updated R29. Still, there will be no escaping the massive second plus gap between the Renault duo in the second round of qualifying plus another error from the under-pressure Brazilian racer.

Ferrari are having a tough start to the season with the F60 package but at least today both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen both made it into the final round of qualifying. Massa starts eighth with Raikkonen seemingly heavily fuelled starts tenth.

The team are of course chasing their first points of the season and while the car may not yet feature any developments, the Italian squad seem in much better shape than in recent events.

Williams Toyota have flattered to deceive again this weekend after Rosberg looked very strong in practice only to qualify ninth in his updated FW31. Team-mate Kazuki Nakajima starts 12th behind the second McLaren Mercedes of Heikki Kovalainen.

BMW Sauber have not looked fast for some time now and today was no exception as Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld slithered around to 13th and 14th positions on the grid. For a team leading the championship a year ago, the updates to the F1.09 package cannot come soon enough.

Adrian Sutil qualified 16th in the leading Force India Mercedes behind Piquet, but was involved in an incident late in the first round of qualifying that saw him inadvertently block Webber. The end result was the Red Bull Renault driver had his final qualifying lap severely compromised and the disappointed Australian was 19th fastest. However, the Force India racer was later handed a three position grid penalty dropping him to 19th and promoting Webber up one position.

Sebastien Buemi qualified 17th in his Toro Rosso Ferrari and will therefore start 16th in his Toro Rosso Ferrari ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella in his Force India, Webber, Sutil and Sebastien Bourdais in the second STR4.