Manama, 20 April

At the end of yet another very closely contested qualifying, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa set the third and sixth fastest times. However, they will start alongside one another on the second row tomorrow, as Felipe gets promoted to fourth because of penalties for the two drivers directly ahead of him, Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton. It was yet another boiling hot afternoon at the Sakhir circuit, as the ten drivers took to the track for Q3. The Spanish Ferrari man made a slight mistake, giving up on his final run, thus saving tyres for the race.

Felipe’s sixth place was better than it looked given that he was on the harder of the two Pirelli compounds, which could be to his advantage tomorrow, as all the other drivers that got to Q3 will be starting the race on the Medium tyre.

Alonso was fastest in Q1, with Massa a comfortable seventh, with both cars behaving very well on the Hards. In Q2, everyone switched to Mediums, with Alonso doing just a single run to take a solid fifth place. Massa was eighth having done two runs.

In the end, pole position went to Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes in a time of 1.33.364.