Last year's Bahrain Grand Prix winner Felipe Massa has put his F2008 on the front row of the grid, in second place, with his Scuderia Ferrari team-mate behind him in fourth spot on the outside of row two. "Obviously, we had hoped for a better result, but it's definitely not a case of bandaging your head before you've broken it!" declared Stefano Domenicali.

The headline that English speaking newspapers and magazines have been waiting on for a long time now finally came true at the Sakhir circuit today, as Poland's Robert Kubica took his and the BMW-Sauber team's first ever F1 pole position. Last year's Bahrain winner Felipe Massa put his F2008 on the front row in second place, with his Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team-mate behind him in fourth spot on the outside of row 2. Third place went to Lewis Hamilton.

While Kimi was fractionally outside the eventual fight for the top place on the grid, the other three had quite a dice to decide the final shape of the top of the grid. Felipe, who had dominated proceedings so far this weekend, just missed out on the best grid position, mentioning that, although not badly delayed, he did encounter a few difficulties with traffic. As for Kimi, the Finn felt his car was not at its best over the one lap discipline. However, both Ferrari men are confident they can challenge for top honours on Sunday afternoon. As usual, it won't be until the first run of pit stops that everyone can see what fuel loads were used today. The third row sees Heikki Kovalainen and his McLaren-Mercedes in fifth and the Sauber-BMW of Nick Heidfeld in sixth place.

Track conditions and the weather will play important roles when the lights go out tomorrow at 2.30 in the afternoon, local time, at the start of the 57 lap race. The mixture of sand, dust and rubber from other race categories makes for a slippery mixture, especially off the racing line. This means that although the 5.412 kilometre desert track has some genuine passing opportunities, moving off line to pass another car is always going to be risky and, as we have seen at the first two races this year, piloting these machines without traction control is not quite as easy as some thought it might be.

Two Ferraris on the two front rows: this was the outcome of qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Felipe Massa will start from second place, with his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen right behind him in fourth spot. "Obviously, we had hoped for a better result, but it's definitely not a case of bandaging your head before you've broken it!" declared Stefano Domenicali. "We have two cars on the front two rows and we have seen these past two days what potential we can rely on. Tomorrow, we will have to get a good start, try to manage our race as best as possible and, above all, to be reliable."

Felipe Massa: "All things considered, I am still confident after this qualifying. We know we can count on a really good car, as we have seen so far here in Sakhir. In Q3, I always had a bit of traffic, but these things happen. We must remain concentrated and do the best job we can, making the most of all our resources. Congratulations to Robert, who really drove very well."

Kimi Raikkonen: "I'm not very happy with the way today went, but fourth place is still a good starting position for the race, given the potential we have. The balance of the car was not perfect right from this morning and I struggled a bit to be as quick as I would have liked to be and could have been. Now we have to look at the data to try and find out why. I think that tomorrow in the race, when points are up for grabs, I will be very strong. I think we might have made different choices in terms of strategy, but let's wait and see in the race if that's really the case."

Luca Baldisserri: "Today we weren't at the top of our game at the key moment, which means the final qualifying session. A shame, because up until them, it was clear we had everything in place to do well. All the same, it is as always the race that matters over a Grand Prix weekend, so better to wait until tomorrow before drawing conclusions. We know our car is very good over a long run and we must try and get the most out of it if we want to be ahead of our rivals."

Qualifying session

F. Massa: 2nd 1.33.123 6 laps chassis 267
K. Raikkonen: 4th 1.33.418 6 laps chassis 268
Weather: air temperature 32/31 °C, track temperature 42/37 °C, cloudy.