Vettel delighted with "intense qualifying" result

Sebastian Vettel scored his 51st pole position in the Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying session with an excellent lap time of 1:27.958, a tenth and a half faster than teammate Kimi Raikkonen. In the process, Ferrari managed their first one-two in a Bahrain qualifying session since 2006.

Soon after the qualifying session ended, Vettel commented on his achievement: "It was quite intense. I knew that in the last corner I just needed to stay away from that last kerb. Then obviously you're looking around trying to see where the others are." he said. " The car was excellent all weekend so far, so looking forward to tomorrow. If the car is responding to what you want to it, it's a pleasure. Otherwise it's a fight."

"Australia was more of a fight. We worked on the balance, we looked into it quite a lot. I think we improved it as well yesterday and today. Even though it's not easy because we do the practice sessions when the sun is up and then qualifying and the race when the sun is done."

Vettel has also commented about the teething problems he encountered in this morning's free practice: "We had some issues this morning but we overcame those. The car is responding, so I'm very pleased. Feeling good now, but tomorrow's a different story," Vettel commented. "It's a long, long race. We've seen that it's not easy to make the tyres last." he added.