Scuderia Ferrari secured a hat trick of poles with Felipe Massa taking his second consecutive pole position in seven days, after team-mate Kimi Raikkonen started from the number one slot in Melbourne. Again, as in Sepang last Sunday, the Finn will start behind the Brazilian in third spot and also again, Felipe will have a McLaren-Mercedes alongside him, this time in the shape of rookie Lewis Hamilton, the Englishman recording his first front start in his brief F1 career.

His team-mate and reigning world champion, Fernando Alonso starts alongside Raikkonen on the outside of the second row. It seems that at this point in the season, there is virtually no change to the pecking order among the teams and the third row of the grid is therefore an all BMW-Sauber affair, with Robert Kubica just ahead of Nick Heidfeld. Fortunately, despite a few rain drops around lunchtime, the predicted storm did not arrive. A tough race can be expected tomorrow, particularly as this circuit is hard on engines that endure a heavy duty cycle here, compounded by the risk of sand damaging engine internals.

Felipe Massa's name appears no less than three times on today's official qualifying time sheet, because it is at the top of the list, then at the bottom attributed with the "pole lap time" and then again under that for "fastest lap overall" these two last categories not always being the same as cars still have to run in the final part of qualifying with their race start fuel load. It will be the third time that a Ferrari driver will start the Bahrain Grand Prix from pole, the 189th in the history of the Prancing Horse in Formula 1. It was Felipe's fifth career pole.

Jean Todt: "We are on pole for the third time in three qualifying sessions so far this season, the second consecutive first place for Felipe, while Kimi will be right behind him on the grid. We are pleased with the overall result, but the memory of Sepang is still fresh in the mind and so we will be tackling tomorrow's race with even more humility and determination, if that's possible. We have made a significant step forward this weekend, but the key one is due for tomorrow as we know from recent history and we can learn from history. On this magnificent circuit, with very high temperatures, as usual, the start, overall reliability and strategy will all be important. We will do all we can to reach our objectives. For a moment however, we can enjoy today's qualifying result on a day that is important for our company
 

"Because here today at Sakhir we have signed an agreement for the construction of a Ferrari theme park on the island of Yas in Abu Dhabi."

Felipe Massa : "I am very happy to be on pole once again for the second time in a row and of course I am hoping for a very different race result to the one I obtained last Sunday. I did two good laps and I want to thank the team for the fantastic work they have done and for giving me a really competitive car. I hope that tomorrow's race goes the same way as qualifying. The first two races have not gone the way I expected and I really hope that this one will reverse the trend. We have a very competitive car, both over a single lap and over a distance: now we just have to do our best to get the most out of the potential at our disposal."

Kimi Raikkonen: "Third place is a good result and puts us in a reasonable position for tomorrow's race. Of course I would rather always be in front of everyone, but I know we still have to improve to get all the performance out of the car over a single lap. Then, I also had a bit of traffic today on both my runs in Q3. Track conditions are better than yesterday and are closer to those we had here in testing a few weeks back."

Luca Baldisserri: "This session was very pleasing with Felipe putting in an extraordinary performance all day long. It was a shame that traffic slightly hampered Kimi on his two quick laps in the final part of qualifying, which meant he did not get the most out of his F2007. The cars ran trouble free and proved to have a good balance. I am confident we can get a good result. We know it will be tough because we are up against strong opposition, but we are cautiously optimistic."

Qualifying session: F. Massa 1st 1.32.652, chassis 260; K. Raikkonen 3rd 1.33.131, chassis 261; Weather: air temperature 32/33°C, track temperature 44°C, hazy.