Formula One: Sebastian Vettel takes pole position for Bahrain Grand Prix

After a record-breaking 15 poles last season, Vettel had failed to get anywhere near the front row prior to yesterday, the 24-year-old even recording a miserable 11th in China last weekend, his worst performance for 42 races. But from nowhere, Vettel and Red Bull have managed to find some speed this past week.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was forced to settle for second, just 0.098seconds behind Vettel’s pole lap of one minute 32.422secs, with team-mates Mark Webber and Jenson Button on the second row in third and fourth. Bathgate’s Paul di Resta, below, made it to the third qualifying session for the first time this season and his Force India is tenth on the grid. He outperformed team-mate Niko Hulkenburg who was 13th.

Qualifying took place against a backdrop of virtually empty grandstands in light of the unrest in the Gulf state that has overshadowed this event.

Last weekend’s polesitter and race winner Nico Rosberg was only fifth in his Mercedes, followed by a superb performance by Daniel Ricciardo in sixth for Toro Rosso. Lotus’ Romain Grosjean was seventh, followed by the Sauber of Sergio Perez, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Di Resta.

In Q2 Kimi Raikkonen was dumped out of the top ten by team-mate Grosjean. Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi and Hulkenberg line up 12th and 13th, ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who again failed to make Q3, while Williams’ Bruno Senna lines up 15th.

After starting second in Shanghai, Michael Schumacher will be forced to fight his way through the field from 17th. Finn Heikki Kovalainen, in his Caterham, is 16th. Williams’ Pastor Maldonado qualified 17th, but drops to 22nd due to a five-place penalty for a gearbox change. Behind Schumacher will be Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne, Vitaly Petrov in a Caterham, Marussia’s Charles Pic and HRT’s Pedro de la Rosa.On the back row will be Timo Glock in his Marussia and Narain Karthikeyan for HRT.

Vettel said afterwards: “It’s not been an easy start to the season, but what we have done here is what we expect from ourselves.”