Robert Kubica secures his first ever pole

Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber Team, saved his best for his final lap of qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix, stopping the clocks with a best time of 1:33.096 s, three hundredths of a second clear of Felipe Massa of Ferrari. Massa dominated practice ahead of qualifying and was again the man to beat today in qualifying. That was until his very final run where he proved blisteringly fast once again, but lost time mid-lap, taking the chequered flag just 0.027s shy of Kubica’s best. The Brazilian will be disappointed to miss out on the pole position, but knows he has the pace to challenge Kubica from the outset of the 57-lap Grand Prix.

Grid Times Bahrein GP

1. Robert Kubica Poland BMW Sauber F1 Team-BMW 1:33.096
2. Felipe Massa Brazil Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro-Ferrari 1:33.123
3. Lewis Hamilton Britain Vodafone McLaren Mercedes-Mercedes 1:33.292
4. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro-Ferrari 1:33.418
5. Heikki Kovalainen Finland Vodafone McLaren Mercedes-Mercedes 1:33.488
6. Nick Heidfeld Germany BMW Sauber F1 Team-BMW 1:33.737
7. Jarno Trulli Italy Panasonic Toyota Racing-Toyota 1:33.994
8. Nico Rosberg Germany AT&T Williams-Toyota 1:34.015
9. Jenson Button Britain Honda Racing F1 Team-Honda 1:35.057
10. Fernando Alonso Spain ING Renault F1 Team-Renault 1:35.115
11. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:32.371
12. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Honda Racing F1 Team-Honda 1:32.508
13. Timo Glock Germany Panasonic Toyota Racing-Toyota 1:32.528
14. Nelson Piquet Jr Brazil ING Renault F1 Team-Renault 1:32.790
15. Sebastien Bourdais France Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:32.915
16. Kazuki Nakajima Japan AT&T Williams-Toyota 1:32.943
17. David Coulthard Britain Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:33.433
18. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Force India F1 Team-Ferrari 1:33.501
19. Sebastian Vettel Germany Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:33.562
20. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India F1 Team-Ferrari 1:33.845
21. Anthony Davidson Britain Super Aguri F1 Team-Honda 1:34.140
22. Takuma Sato Japan Super Aguri F1 Team-Honda 1:35.725