Historic Toyota front row in Bahrain
All the winter testing at the Sakhir circuit seemed to pay off for Toyota on Saturday as Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock locked out the front row of the grid for Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
This was the first pole position for the Japanese team since Ralf Schumacher at the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix and the first time Toyota have started from first and second position on the grid.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel will start from third next to the Brawn GP of Jenson Button.
Fresh from his second place finish in last week’s Chinese Grand Prix, Vettel’s team mate Mark Webber returned to his usual unlucky form. He was badly blocked by a swerving Adrian Sutil in the final corner of the first session and ended up in 19th place.
When asked if he would be protesting, Webber didn’t seem to think there was much point:
It doesn’t make any difference. My race is screwed.
Nelson Piquet Jr has been under a lot of pressure to perform and with the help of an interim diffuser he managed to lift himself out of the first qualifying session but could manage no better than 15th.
2009 Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying Results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:33.431 |
| 2 | Timo Glock | Toyota | 1:33.712 |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1:34.015 |
| 4 | Jenson Button | Brawn-Mercedes | 1:34.044 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:34.196 |
| 6 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn-Mercedes | 1:34.239 |
| 7 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:34.578 |
| 8 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:34.818 |
| 9 | Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 1:35.134 |
| 10 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:35.380 |
| 11 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:33.242 |
| 12 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 1:33.348 |
| 13 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1:33.487 |
| 14 | Nick Heidfeld | BWM Sauber | 1:33.562 |
| 15 | Nelson Piquet Jr | Renault | 1:33.941 |
| 16 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:33.753 |
| 17 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India-Mercedes | 1:33.910 |
| 18 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1:34.038 |
| 19 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1:33.722 |
| 20 | Sebastien Bourdais | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:34.159 |
Update: Sutil penalised three places for blocking Webber in qualifying.