Rosberg edges Hamilton as Mercedes dominates in Bahrain

Which is true. Because I know full well before I go to the race who is going to be first, who is going to be second. While fan-enjoyment and ill-effects from disappointing qualifying sessions is a concern, one thing is for sure: the next generation of drivers give us nothing to worry about. “It’s a long race and let’s see what happens tomorrow”. “I was so excited I almost lost my voice – it’s like scoring a goal!”

Lewis Hamilton will start the Bahrain Grand Prix from pole position after edging out Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg in the final Q3 shootout on Saturday evening.

Ferrari went well in Bahrain past year, with Raikkonen finishing runner-up, and the talk ahead of Sunday’s race was that the gap with Mercedes was likely to narrow in the floodlit race if not qualifying.

The line-up for the session was: Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Formula One’s governing body will meet after the Bahrain Grand Prix hoping for a unanimous decision to change the recently implemented qualifying format.

And the German continued his blistering form by outpacing Hamilton by over half a second in the opening session at the Sakhir Circuit yesterday.

“It’s ok, I am reasonably satisfied with third, but not the gap. Hopefully it’s better than last time – we’ll see”.

Felipe Massa tried the new shorter nose on his Williams, but could only lap ninth fastest, just ahead of the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo, though both did their super-soft runs earlier than their rivals.

The teams are meeting with Todt and F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone on Sunday at noon local time to decide on what to do with qualifying for the rest of the season.

It was a confusing start to Q2 as the green light for the session was shown.

During this second session, drivers seemed to get only one flying lap before the elimination started in the sixth minute.

Mercedes were wary of Ferrari’s pace before qualifying after Vettel and Raikkonen finished one-two in final practice, and their concerns appeared to be well founded as the red cars mixed it with the silver through most of qualifying.

Further back, McLaren reserve pilot Stoffel Vandoorne concluded the day in P11, 0.718s off Button in the sister auto, followed by Esteban Gutierrez, Carlos Sainz and Romain Grosjean in positions 12 through to 14, the latter suffering a front wing issue towards the end of the day.

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