Bahrain Grand Prix 2015: Happy Lewis Hamilton helped by Sebastian Vettel

Briton claims pole position as Ferrari find the pace again and demote Rosberg on to second row of grid

(Getty Images)

Lewis Hamilton had never been on pole at the Bahrain Grand Prix before, whereas team-mate Nico Rosberg had occupied that position for the past two visits.

But in a tense qualifying session, Hamilton not only put that to rights but smashed his team-mate’s morale as he headed him by more than half a second in final qualifying. Worse still for Rosberg, he was separated from Hamilton by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

Mercedes might have been fastest in practice and qualifying, on the medium and the soft Pirelli tyres, but they are all too aware of the continuing race threat from Ferrari. Vettel, the surprise winner in Malaysia, confirmed their underlying speed when only hundredths of a second behand Hamilton in a windy afternoon session, then proved his strongest competition in a great qualifying session as dusk fell.

Sebastian Vettel drove his Ferrari to second

Hamilton needed the pole to keep pushing for a third title. But Rosberg needed it to assert his right to be the favoured one at Mercedes. If the team find themselves again in a situation where one driver is leading but backing the other into the clutches of one of the red cars while trying to preserve their tyres, as happened last week in China, team boss Toto Wolff admits that it may be time to deploy team orders and freeze positions.

This is something that, to their credit, they steadfastly avoided last year as management let Hamilton and Rosberg fight out a gripping title tussle.

Were Rosberg to win here with Hamilton third behind Vettel, that would significantly rearrange the points table. But with Hamilton qualifying ahead of Vettel and Rosberg, the second Mercedes driver’s hopes are looking slimmer still.

This time last year the new era of F1, much criticised in Australia and Malaysia and derided here by departed Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo as “taxi cab racing”, exploded into life at this race as Hamilton and Rosberg duked it out wheel to wheel.

Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg is down in third (Getty Images)

Wolff said: “We have great memories of the race last year, but this year the equation changed, because clearly looking at the first three races Ferrari are back and they looked very strong here in their long runs.

“We will still follow the principle of letting Lewis and Nico race but there could be a situation where you just need to be aware that there is a new competitor, that it’s not as easy, and that we don’t have the gap anymore like last year.

“The Ferrari looked the quickest car out there in practice. Very stable, quick tyres and lap times. So we just need to get our act together and analyse it. Sunday’s going to be the important time.”

One of the key factors for Ferrari was the development of their engine over the winter, but another is that there is a much better correlation between data from the wind tunnel and that at the track when the cars are running.

Team chief Maurizio Arrivabene said: “Now the car is working as expected. Last year the technical staff were in charge of developing the car in the wind tunnel, they were doing a lot of work to make sure everything was going well, and now the correspondence between the track data and the wind tunnel is fine. But if I’m going to tell you that we are going to win the championship, you will think that I am out of mind. We are happy, of course, we are coming back, following our programme. But I think that Mercedes are still a super-strong team.”

Hamilton proved that yesterday, setting the fastest time of the weekend on his final run. “I feel very happy,” he said. “Pole was the target, to try and master this track. It doesn’t get us away from the fact that Ferrari are very good this weekend, but hopefully pole will help and we’ll take all measures to make sure our tyres go as far as theirs do. We’re in a good position.”

Vettel was also happy, especially knowing that his car has great race pace, but Rosberg was glum.

He said: “For sure I underestimated Sebastian’s speed and took it too easy on my race tyres in Q2. I’m disappointed; second would have been damage limitation.”

All this, of course, is brilliant for the sport: two of the greatest marques in its history, silver versus red. Four drivers, each with different points to prove, but each with the same goal. F1’s structure might be shaky, but at the sharp end of the grid it’s looking pretty good.