Robert Kubica wiped the smile off
Ferrari's faces by storming to a superb last-gasp pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix – the third round on the 2008
Formula 1 World Championship calendar – pipping former weekend pace-setter
Felipe Massa by the narrow margin of four hundredths of a second.
Massa had shown his rivals little mercy since the opening desert salvo on Friday morning in Sakhir, and was more than half a second quicker than anyone else in Q2. Perhaps tellingly, though, his closest challenger in that session had been Kubica, and when the Brazilian failed to convert his pace and potential into the top spot in Q3, the Pole was there to pounce.
Kubica is enjoying a mightily impressive second full season in the top flight with
BMW Sauber, and his qualifying achievement in Bahrain is inarguably the crowning moment of his career to-date. Whether the Sepang runner-up will be able to hold off the Ferrari and
McLaren threat in the race remains to be seen, but his first pole position and the first for his Munich and Hinwil-based team is surely a sign that BMW has very much arrived in 2008.
Behind Kubica and Massa,
Lewis Hamilton produced a strong effort to beat
Kimi Raikkonen to third spot on the starting grid, the pair respectively two and three tenths of a second shy of Kubica's quickest lap. For Hamilton, gaining the advantage over his world championship rival was decisive – though it is widely believed that Raikkonen is on a heavy fuel load for the race – and the Briton was backed up by McLaren-Mercedes team-mate
Heikki Kovalainen a further two tenths behind in fifth.
Nick Heidfeld wound up sixth-quickest in the sister
F1.08, having never matched the pace of Kubica weekend-long, with
Jarno Trulli and a slightly disappointed
Nico Rosberg sharing row four. The top ten is completed by
Jenson Button – annexing his highest starting position since Fuji last year – and
Fernando Alonso, whom Massa blamed for his loss of concentration in the final crucial seconds.
