Vettel on Pole for Bahrain GP

The first qualifying session of the new F1 season was a pretty intense affair today with 24 cars vying for the pole position which was eventually taken by Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel ahead of the two Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso.

Alonso looked decidedly pissed off in the post qualifying press interview shown on the BBC which helped to brighten up my day!

If you are a follower of this blog you will know that one of my 2010 predictions is for Massa to win the Bahrain GP. So far so good.... but I'll probably end up with egg on my face come tomorrow afternoon.

HRT's last minute signing Karun Chandhok was allowed to take part in qualifying despite never having driven the car before - HRT did not take part in Winter testing and Chandhok's car was not made ready in time for Friday practice.

Makes a bit of a mockery of the FIA's safety regulations allowing an untested car and driver on track during a Grand Prix weekend in my view.

Fortunately Chandhok made a good fist of it despite being thrown in at the deep end. He starts from the back of the grid. HRT will use this Grand Prix more or less as a shakedown test to identify any issues and try to keep out of everyone else's way.

In the battle of the McLarens first blood (as expected) went to Hamilton (P 4 versus Button P 8) but it would appear the car is lagging behind the Ferraris and Red Bulls by an alarming one second per lap. Hopefully McLaren can pull something out of the bag tomorrow when the cars run in race trim.

All did not go according to the script at Mercedes. Rosberg (P5) out qualified Schumacher (P7) by around 0.3 seconds.

Did anyone else notice BBC F1 Jake Humphrey's latest howler? Once again he put his size ten hoof right in it....

The camera panned to the Ferrari garage where Massa's father is being congratulated on Massa's SECOND place grid spot.

Jake Humphrey "Oh look they're celebrating Massa's POLE position". A couple of minutes later a sheepish Jake Humphrey "Of course Massa is in second position, not pole".

When are the BBC going to get shot of this berk?