Four in a row for Hamilton as he takes pole for the Bahrain Grand Prix

(Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team)

Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team’s Lewis Hamilton took pole position for tomorrow’s Bahrain night race setting a time of 1m 32.571s to claim his fourth pole position in the opening four Grand Prix.

Hamilton will be joined on the front row by Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who was 0.411s behind the reigning world champion.

Nico Rosberg will start the race from third place after ending Q3 0.558s behind his team mate Hamilton. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen secured his best qualifying result of the season so far as the Finn will start the race from fourth place ending the session 0.656s behind Hamilton’s Mercedes.

For Raikkonen it is the reverse of what happened last weekend as he will start the race ahead of the Williams Martini Racing Team’s Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa who will start the Grand Prix from 5^th and 6th place respectively.

Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo will start the race from 7^th place after ending his Q3 run 1.261s behind Hamilton. The Australian was up as high as third at one stage in qualifying and is the leading Renault powered car in the top ten.

Nico Hulkenberg did a great job for the Sahara Force India Formula One Team as the German will start the race from eighth place, just ahead of Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz.

The Lotus F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean rounded out the top ten, 1.913s behind the ‘works’ Mercedes car of Lewis Hamilton.

Sergio ‘Checco’ Perez was left disappointed to end the session just outside the top ten in eleventh place. The Mexican will be hoping that he can score a good haul of points for the Silverstone based outfit in tomorrow’s race.

The Sauber F1 Team’s Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson will start the race from 12^th and 13^th place respectively.

It was a fantastic session for McLaren Honda’s Fernando Alonso as the Spaniard’s prediction of getting a car into Q2 was right on the money as he will start the race from 14^th place on the grid. The double world champion will start the race just ahead of the Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen.

The Lotus F1 Team’s Pastor Maldonado will start the race from 16^th place on the grid. The Venezuelan will start the race just ahead of Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s Daniil Kvyat.

Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi will start the race from 18^th and 19^th place respectively for the Manor Marussia F1 Team. It was a disappointing qualifying for McLaren Honda’s Jenson Button as he will start the race from 20^th place after his MP4-30 came to a halt during Q1.

© Ben Johnston 2015