VETTEL CLAIMS POLE
Germany's Sebastian Vettel, last year's Formula One championship runner-up, has claimed pole position for Sunday's season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
Vettel, who finished the 2009 campaign by winning two of the final three races, grabbed the sixth pole of his 44-race career, leaving the returning Michael Schumacher down in seventh place.
The Red Bull Racing star put in a stunning hot lap in the closing 10-minute qualifying session at the Sakhir circuit to edge out Ferrari duo Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso into second and third, with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton fourth.
The 22-year-old Vettel was brilliant throughout all three sessions, finishing second in the opening 20 minutes before topping the middle 15-minute stint and then coming out on top at the end.
Vettel ultimately finished with a lap of one minute 54.101 seconds, with Massa 0.141secs adrift and Alonso a further 0.4secs down.
Hamilton won his first battle of the Britons with team-mate Jenson Button at McLaren as the world champion struggled during the course of the afternoon and will start eighth directly behind seven-times champion Schumacher.
The 41-year-old, on his comeback after three and a half years in retirement, was again bettered by his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg (fifth), as he was in all three practice sessions.
Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber starts sixth, with Robert Kubica in his Renault ninth behind Button, and Force India's Adrian Sutil a fine 10th.
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