[Mikk]

From: BBC

Lewis Hamilton bounced back from his crash in Friday practice to qualify in third for Sunday's Bahrain GP as BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica claimed pole.
Hamilton, who had to use a spare chassis after damaging his McLaren in a heavy crash, set a time of one minute, 33.292 seconds for provisional pole.
But Kubica then set a stunning lap of 1:33.096 to claim a maiden pole ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa.
Kimi Raikkonen was fourth for Ferrari with McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen fifth.
The grid is set for an exciting start to Sunday's Grand Prix in Sakhir with the main protagonists spread across the front three rows.
After badly damaging his car in Friday's practice, Hamilton was working with a brand new chassis as teams are now no longer allowed to bring a spare car to race weekends.
The engineers worked overnight to get the car in race shape, and after a sluggish final practice, the Briton was back to form in qualifying.

Hamilton put in a huge effort in the final session only to be overhauled by Kubica and Massa in the closing seconds.
Britain's championship leader will start in third alongside Kimi Raikkonen, who is just three points behind him in the drivers' standings.
"The Ferraris have outstanding pace," said Hamilton. "But I knew that I would still be able to challenge for the front row.
"It was a reasonable lap and I'll go back and study it; but I'm looking forward to the race. We have a good strategy and it will be quite interesting."
Hamilton shrugged off the effects of Friday's crash which saw him plough into the tyre wall at 111mph.
"The crash makes no difference," the 23-year-old said. "I just get back in the car and go faster.
"In fact, I went faster through that corner in qualifying than I did in qualifying so it's important to bounce back."
Massa had been the pacesetter in Bahrain, where he won last season, clocking the fastest times on Friday and looking good during qualifying.
But whilst Kubica was setting his provisional pole, Massa was labouring behind traffic on his final qualifying lap and had to settle for second.

"I did some incredible laps this weekend," said Massa, who is searching for his first point of 2008.
"But in the third qualifying session, I got stuck behind cars, and it's a shame. We still have a great car though and we can be very strong on Sunday."
Kubica, who finished second in Malaysia two weeks ago, came out of nowhere to clinch his first-ever pole.
The 23-year-old took pole by less than one-tenth of a second from Massa to emphasise BMW Sauber's emergence as a major contender.
"We have developed quite a lot and did some really good work in qualifying," said Kubica.
"The last three corners were very difficult but I didn't make any mistakes and if was enough for pole, so I'm very happy."
Jenson Button also had reason to celebrate in Sakhir as he qualified his Honda in a season's best ninth, just ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso.
There was disappointment for David Coulthard, who failed to get beyond the first session, which was halted for a few minutes after Takuma Sato clipped his Super Aguri going into the final corner.
"It's going to be a difficult weekend for us," the Red Bull driver said. "We've had a lot of problems with oversteer."

Grid positions for the Bahrain Grand Prix:
1. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 1 min 33.096
2. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 1:33.123
3. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 1:33.292
4. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:33.418
5. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren 1:33.488
6. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 1:33.737
7. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 1:33.994
8. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams - Toyota 1:34.015
9. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 1:35.057
10. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1:35.115
11. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault 1:32.371
12. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 1:32.508
13. Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 1:32.528
14. Nelsinho Piquet (Brazil) Renault 1:32.790
15. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:32.915
16. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams - Toyota 1:32.943
17. David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull - Renault 1:33.433
18. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India - Ferrari 1:33.501
19. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:33.562
20. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India - Ferrari 1:33.845
21. Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri - Honda 1:34.140
22. Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri - Honda 1:35.725

Well so far its another interesting season in F1.

BMW are looking strong and its good to see someone other than a ferrari or mclaren on pole.

[Hipster William]

It was a rather dissapoiting day for Kimi he was off the pace all and him and Lewis have something to prove tomorrow. I can't believe Massa threw away his chance of pole with another mistake, if he dosent finish tomorrow then I believe his Ferrari place could be under some pressure, like Mikk said nice to see some other team win it apart from Mclaren and Ferrari and it was with a great drive from Robert Kubica.

[Mikk]

Originally Posted by hbkfanforever

It was a rather dissapoiting day for Kimi he was off the pace all and him and Lewis have something to prove tomorrow. I can't believe Massa threw away his chance of pole with another mistake, if he dosent finish tomorrow then I believe his Ferrari place could be under some pressure, like Mikk said nice to see some other team win it apart from Mclaren and Ferrari and it was with a great drive from Robert Kubica.

I think its likely Massa is going to head out after this season with Alonso replacing him.

Unless Kimi messes up really bad.

[Hipster William]

It was a good win for Massa he raced very well today and I dont think I even saw a mistake off him which is quite unusual for him, Kimi raced well but was off the pace all day. It was a disapointing day for Kubica his start was dreaful and he had the pace of the Ferrari's but he didn't even have an attmept of overtaking the ferraris. It was unusual to see BMW on the pace they where far quicker than the Mclaren's, what if instead of BMW having a part in Williams for like five years they could of just bought Sauber and they might have won a few races here and there.

Result

1 Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari one hour 31 minutes 6.970 seconds
2 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari +3.339 secs
3 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber +4.998
4 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber +8.409
5 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes +26.789
6 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota +41.314
7 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault +45.473
8 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota +55.889
9 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota +1:09.500
10 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault +1:17.181
11 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Honda +1:17.862
12 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India-Ferrari one lap behind
13 Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes one lap
14 Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams-Toyota one lap
15 Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari one lap
16 Anthony Davidson (GB) Super Aguri-Honda one lap
17 Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri-Honda one lap
18 David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault one lap
19 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Ferrari two laps
R Nelson Piquet Jr (Brz) Renault 40 laps completed
R Jenson Button (GB) Honda 19 laps
R Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 0 laps

Nice to see Giancarlo doing really well in the Force India, I was surprised not to see Timo Glock do well and bad news for Lewis he was off the pace all day

Driver Points

1 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari Fin 19
2 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber Ger 16
3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes GB 14
4 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber Pol 14
5 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes Fin 14
6 Felipe Massa Ferrari Brz 10
7 Jarno Trulli Toyota Ita 8
8 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota Ger 7
9 Fernando Alonso Renault Spa 6
10 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault Aus 4
11 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota Jpn 3
12 Sebastien Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari Fra 2
13 David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault GB 0
14 Jenson Button Honda GB 0
15 Nelson Piquet Jr Renault Brz 0
16 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Ferrari Ita 0
17 Rubens Barrichello Honda Brz 0
18 Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda GB 0
19 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda Jpn 0

Constructer Points

1 BMW Sauber 30
2 Ferrari 29
3 McLaren-Mercedes 28
4 Williams-Toyota 10
5 Toyota 8
6 Renault 6
7 Red Bull-Renault 4
8 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2
9 Honda 0
10 Force-India Ferrari 0
11 Super Aguri-Honda 0

And by the way could this be the new Formula One thread?

[kertonl]

nice win for lewis today in monaco hopefully he can maintain this win in to quite a few.