Sebastian Vettel will start the Bahrain Grand Prix on pole position, marking a return to normality for Red Bull following their Saturday domination last season.
The German left his final flyer until the very last moment to go a tenth quicker than McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in second. Hamilton splits the Red Bull cars with Mark Webber in third and Jenson Button in fourth.
Chinese GP polesitter Nico Rosberg starts fourth, a far better performance than his team-mate Michael Schumacher. A mistake on his qualifying lap, combined with a technical issue surrounding his rear-wing, meant he completed just a single lap in Q1 which wasn’t good enough to get him into Q2.
Daniel Ricciardo impressed for Toro Rosso to start sixth ahead of Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez. Fernando Alonso and Paul di Resta opted not to set a timed lap and therefore start P9 and P10 respectively.
Kimi Raikkonen fell foul of a tight grid by missing out on Q3 by the smallest of margins and starts 11th.
Heikki Kovalainen got his Caterham through to Q2 for the first time this season and will start 16th ahead of Schumacher after Maldonado takes his five place penalty.
Jean-Eric Vergne missed his call to enter the weighbridge at the end of qualifying and faced a reprimand.
2012 Bahrain GP Qualifying Results: (* = 5 place penalty)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Q1 Time | Q2 Time | Q3 Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:34.308 | 1:33.527 | 1:32.422 |
| 03. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 1:34.015 | 1:33.311 | 1:32.637 |
| 02. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 1:34.813 | 1:33.209 | 1:32.520 |
| 04. | J. Button | McLaren | 1:34.792 | 1:33.416 | 1:32.711 |
| 15. | B. Senna | Williams | 1:34.466 | 1:34.017 | |
| 09. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 1:34.760 | 1:33.403 | No Time |
| 14. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 1:34.372 | 1:33.912 | |
| 13. | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:34.601 | 1:33.807 | |
| 17. | P. Maldonado* | Williams | 1:34.639 | No Time | |
| 12. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 1:34.131 | 1:33.806 | |
| 08. | S. Perez | Sauber | 1:33.814 | 1:33.660 | 1:33.394 |
| 20. | V. Petrov | Caterham | 1:35.823 | ||
| 11. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | 1:34.552 | 1:33.789 | |
| 18. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:34.865 | ||
| 05. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:34.588 | 1:33.219 | 1:32.821 |
| 07. | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 1:34.041 | 1:33.246 | 1:33.008 |
| 19. | J. Vergne | Toro Rosso | 1:35.014 | ||
| 10. | P. di Resta | Force India | 1:34.624 | 1:33.510 | No Time |
| 22. | P. de la Rosa | HRT | 1:37.883 | ||
| 06. | D. Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 1:33.988 | 1:33.556 | 1:32.912 |
| 16. | H. Kovalainen | Caterham | 1:34.852 | 1:36.132 | |
| 21. | C. Pic | Marussia | 1:37.683 | ||
| 23. | T. Glock | Marussia | 1:37.905 | ||
| 24. | N. Karthikeyan | HRT | 1:38.314 | ||
| Q1 107% Time: | 1:40.380 | ||||
