Alonso takes pole
Fernando Alonso saw off a determined attack from a resurgent Michael Schumacher to take his second pole position of the season in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The world championship leader, driving a Renault, held a crucial advantage from his first-session exploits and held on to top spot by 0.455 seconds from Schumacher.
The seven-time world champion continued to show the potential of his new Ferrari, introduced early at Sakhir, and improved on yesterday’s showing to steal second place from Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, who dropped to third.
Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber gave Williams fourth and fifth on the grid respectively after good showings while Ralf Schumacher improved five places today to steal sixth in his Toyota.
Jenson Button could do little to improve on BAR-Honda’s poor performance yesterday and he will start the race from 11th as he chases his first points of the season.
David Coulthard fared even worse ad will line up 14th for Red Bull.
Rubens Barrichello was the first top driver on track after his mistake in first qualifying yesterday.
The Ferrari driver, setting just his third flying lap of the weekend so far, was easily faster than all previous runners for much of his lap before backing off on the start-finish straight and coming to a halt.
He completed his lap but lost well over a second and dropped to 15th after the incident, the reason for which was unclear.
With today’s times aggregated with yesterday’s, little was expected to change in the order and most early runners all held position, with just the two Jordans of Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro swapping spots.
Sauber’s Felipe Massa was the first to alter the order when he clocked a disappointing lap to allow Ralf Schumacher and Button to edge ahead.
Schumacher gained another place when McLaren debutant Pedro de la Rosa, standing in for the injured Juan Pablo Montoya, dropped time.
The German’s lap was looking all the more impressive when Christian Klien, driving a Red Bull, also failed to improve on it, despite holding a significant time advantage from the first session.
Kimi Raikkonen too could not match Schumacher’s efforts as he suffered a poor lap, losing nearly half a second on the Toyota and qualifying behind McLaren team-mate de la Rosa.
Webber finally deposed Schumacher but not before the Toyota driver had improved his grid slot by four places.
That became five when Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella clocked a terrible lap to slide down the order after a mistake.
Heidfeld overcame a lacklustre middle sector to overtake team-mate Webber but his time at the top was brief as Michael Schumacher comfortably took over. Trulli failed to match his time before Alonso’slast-lap masterclass.
Bahrain Grand Prix
Final Qualifying:
1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 3mins 01.902secs,
2 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 3:02.357,
3 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 3:02.660,
4 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Williams BMW 3:03.217,
5 Mark Webber (Aus) Williams BMW 3:03.262,
6 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 3:03.271,
7 Christian Klien (Aut) Red Bull 3:03.369,
8 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) McLaren Mercedes 3:03.373,
9 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren Mercedes 3:03.524,
10 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 3:03.765,
11 Jenson Button (Gbr) BAR Honda,
12 Felipe Massa (Bra) Sauber Petronas 3:05.202,
13 Takuma Sato (Jpn) BAR Honda 3:05.563,
14 David Coulthard (Gbr) Red Bull 3:05.844,
15 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 3:07.693,
16 Jacques Villeneuve (Can) Sauber Petronas 3:07.983,
17 Tiago Monteiro (Por) Jordan Toyota 3:09.428,
18 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Jordan Toyota 3:10.143,
19 Christijan Albers (Ned) Minardi Cosworth 3:10.422,
20 Patrick Friesacher (Ger) Minardi Cosworth 3:11.261
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