Team-by-team summary: Saturday, Bahrain
Robert Kubica and BMW-Sauber's first pole earned even the personal congratulations of Bernie Ecclestone as the team celebrated in the paddock, although many believe the deadpan Pole is carrying less fuel than his nearest rivals. Team boss Mario Theissen – albeit delighted – admits that Ferrari "still has the faster car". Teammate Nick Heidfeld is sixth, having struggled all weekend with the balance of his car, particularly on single laps. "Obviously I'm not where I want to be," he said.
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FERRARI
Felipe Massa has been the class of the field all weekend, and was miserable as he blamed bad luck, traffic and a key mistake for dropping to P2 in the decisive qualifying phase. "We still have a great car," he warned. He threatened to incur the stewards' wrath by apparently failing to slow for the yellow flags after Takuma Sato's Q1 crash. Teammate Kimi Raikkonen was not happy with his fourth spot.
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MCLAREN-MERCEDES
Lewis Hamilton, third on the grid, claims no ill-effects from his Friday shunt, insisting that a perfect lap would have delivered pole. Team boss Ron Dennis dismissed Kubica's pole by assuming that the BMW is low on fuel. "We have a good race strategy," BMW's Theissen answered coyly. Heikki Kovalainen is fifth.
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TOYOTA
Seventh place accurately reflects Jarno Trulli's status so far in 2008 — best of the rest behind the two Ferraris, McLarens and BMWs. Teammate Timo Glock failed to make Q3.
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WILLIAMS-TOYOTA
Much better pace compared to Sepang puts Nico Rosberg back in Q3 (eighth), after he even topped the time sheets in a topsy-turvy Saturday morning practice. "This is more or less the best we can do," he said. Teammate Kazuki Nakajima was the slowest of the Q2 qualifiers.
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HONDA
Jenson Button's feat of putting his RA108 in the top-ten got plenty of paddock mentions, and he even pipped Fernando Alonso to ninth on the grid, despite running out of soft tires for Q3. Rubens Barrichello, again a tenth or two off his teammate's pace, lines up twelfth, after a gearbox issue disturbed his lap in Q2.
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RENAULT
Alonso was the slowest of the elite Q3 qualifiers, and his Q2 margin over teammate Nelson Piquet Jr was a comfortable four tenths.
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RED BULL-RENAULT
Mark Webber missed beating Alonso or Button into Q3 by a fraction of a heart-beat, but "we weren't quick enough to go through," the Australian plainly admitted. Teammate David Coulthard did not even break out of the company of Q1 stragglers — albeit by the barest of margins.
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TORO ROSSO-FERRARI
Champ Car sensation Sebastien Bourdais deserves a special mention for proving the class of the Red Bull junior team so far this weekend (fifteenth), as his highly rated young teammate Sebastian Vettel dropped out with the backmarkers in Q1. Even so, the gap between them was less than two tenths.
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FORCE INDIA-FERRARI
Giancarlo Fisichella is again the quicker Force India driver, but he and Adrian Sutil are still yet to break out of Q1 in 2008. "We are close, but not quite there at the moment," Sutil said.
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SUPER AGURI-HONDA
Anthony Davidson takes the rare honor of out-qualifying his teammate Sato, after the Japanese lost control of his car out of the last corner, tagged the barriers, and brought out a brief red flag.