Qualifying Report - Vettel takes Bahrain pole

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel has taken the first pole position of the 2010 Formula One World Championship in Bahrain, beating the two Ferrari drivers in the to take the top spot.

Felipe Massa, in his return after his accident last summer in Hungary, took the outside front row position, beating his team mate Fernando Alonso, who took third. The Spaniard held provisional pole early on and was one of the few drivers to make two qualifying runs in the Q3 session.

British driver Lewis Hamilton was fourth in his McLaren, his team mate Jenson Button only managing eighth. Nico Rosberg was fifth quickest in his Mercedes, beating Michael Schumacher - who could only manage seventh place on the grid.

Vettel's team mate Mark Webber was sixth on the grid, Robert Kubica in his debut for Renault was ninth, and Adrian Sutil in the Force India was tenth.

Rubens Barrichello was 11th for Williams, the Brazilian getting bumped at the end of Q2 by Jenson Button, while his team mate Nico Hulkenberg was the fastest rookie driver in 13th place. Sandwiched between the two Williams was Vitantonio Liuzzi in the second Force India.

Pedro de la Rosa was 14th in his BMW Sauber, while his team mate Kamui Kobayashi was 16th. Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Buemi was 15th, and Vitaly Petrov was 17th in the Renault.

In Q1, Jaime Alguersuari was the only driver from the experienced teams not to make it through, as well as all of the new teams - Timo Glock quickest for Virgin, followed by Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen for Lotus, Glock's team mate Lucas di Grassi, followed by the two HRTs of Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok bringing up the rear, the Indian's times being over ten seconds off of the pole time.