First 2010 pole position for Sebastien Vettel

Red Bull driver Sebastien Vettel clinched the pole position today in Bahrain. With the lap time of 1:54.101, the German driver will start in the front line of the first race of the year. The two Ferraris took second and third place, with Massa ahead of Fernando Alonso.

In the third qualifying session Ferrari was one of the few teams to go for two qualifying runs, with Fernando Alonso holding provisional pole until his time was beaten by Vettel with a 0.9 seconds advantage that remained unbeaten, securing the sixth pole position of the German driver's career.

"It's a big surprise," said the 22-year-old, who had mechanical problems in practice on Friday. "In winter testing, no one really knew where everyone was. Of course it was clear that four teams were pretty strong."

In his return to the qualifyings Michael Schumacher didn't go further than the seventh spot, showing some struggle to risk it all in one single lap. His team mate, Nico Rosberg, was the fastest Mercedes GP driver with a fifth place behind, Great Britain's Lewis Hamilton. Mark Webber was sixth while Jenson Button that almost failed to qualify for the third session will join Schumacher in the fourth row of tomorrow's starting grid. The two last top ten drivers are Robert Kubica and Adrien Sutil, confirming the good indications of Force India's car during the winter season.

The back of the field is occupied by the new team drivers, with Timo Glock from Virgin Racing being the fastest. He was followed by the two Lotus drivers, his team mate di Grassi, with the two last spots occupied by Senna and Chandock from Hispania. Although Karun Chandohok was unsurprisingly 10 seconds off the pace he was still able to get out on track for the first time for Hispania.