NICO Rosberg looked forward to kick-starting his season after seizing Mercedes' second successive pole position in qualifying for the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix yesterday.
Fellow German and triple world champion Sebastian Vettel joined him on the front row for Red Bull at a circuit where no driver has won from lower than fourth place on the grid in the last eight races.
"Am I surprised? A little bit. It wasn't really clear who was the quickest car over one lap," said Rosberg of his second career pole. "I really want to kick-start my season. It has been a rough ride in the first three races."
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, three times a winner in Bahrain, will share the second row in today's race with Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa after penalties for Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull's Mark Webber.
Hamilton was on pole in China last weekend but collected a five-place penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change after yesterday's final practice, dropping him from fourth. Webber was fifth fastest for his 200th race but falls three places as a punishment for causing a collision in Shanghai. Massa moves up from sixth.
Britain's Paul Di Resta qualified a strong seventh with a time of 1m 33.235s for Force India and will move up to fifth after the grid penalties.
Rosberg's only previous pole was in China last year. He has retired from two of the season's three races and was fourth in Malaysia when he was ordered by the team not to pass Hamilton for third place for fear the cars would run out of fuel.
The son of 1982 champion Keke now has a chance to take the second win of his career, at the circuit where he made his debut in 2006, but he warned that rear-tyre degradation would be a concern: "It's difficult to say if we have enough pace to win the race tomorrow but for sure we'll try hard to win," said Rosberg.
The driver on pole in Bahrain has won four of the past eight races there.
Vettel leads the championship with 52 points, with Kimi Raikkonen, who qualified in ninth place but moves up to eighth, second on 49 for Lotus. Alonso has 43.
"Congratulations to Nico, it was all his today," said Vettel. "It was clear even with a perfect lap he was unbeatable today."
Di Resta was content with the way things had gone for him. "We knew we were in good shape to challenge for Q3 today and we looked strong throughout all the sessions," he said. "As the track gripped up we didn't quite have the speed we expected, but I'm still pretty happy with what we've achieved, especially as I will move up to fifth. We're in a great position: the car is strong and our long-run performance yesterday gives us every reason to be hopeful of challenging for some good points."
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