Lewis Hamilton grabs pole in Bahrain – but it’s Vettel in second

Qualifying for the 2015 Bahrain Grand Prix ended with Lewis Hamilton taking pole position for Mercedes but with Sebastian Vettel in second place for Ferrari. Rosberg took third.

Lewis Hamilton has had an interesting week since he took the win in Shanghai, with team mate Rosberg moaning that Lewis was too slow.

But he wasn’t slow in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix today, not only taking pole but doing it by almost half a second.

And he wasn’t even half a second (actually 0.411s) in front of team mate Rosberg, but in front of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who pushed the German in the Mercedes down in to third. Maybe that’s because Hamilton was too slow again?

Behind Rosberg comes Kimi Raikkonen in fourth place, pushing the Williams’ of Bottas and Massa in to fifth and sixth, Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull in to seventh, Hulkenberg’s Force India in eighth, Carlos Sainz’ Toro Rosso in ninth and Grosjean’s Lotus propping up the top ten.

It wasn’t a great day for Jenson Button again, whose McLaren Honda broke down on hist first lap out before he could even set a time, although Alonso did manage ninth place in Q1, even if he ended up 14th after second qualifying.

Other unhappy ‘names’ include Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat, who will start in 17th, and Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus in 16th.

But the race will be all about Ferrari and Mercedes (probably – Williams don’t seem quite on it in Bahrain) and whether Mercedes can manage their tyres to keep Vettel away from the win, and Raikkonen from crawling all over Rosberg.