Trulli on pole as Toyota dominate

**4me2** · 25th April 2009

Trulli on pole as Toyota dominate

BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX
Venue: Sakhir Circuit, Manama Dates: 24-26 April Coverage: Live coverage of Sunday's race across BBC TV, radio and online from 1200 BST. Find listings here

Trulli and Glock have been threatening the front-runners all season in their Toyota cars

By Chris Whyatt

Jarno Trulli will start on pole in Bahrain with team-mate Timo Glock next to him as Toyota locked out the front row for the first time in Formula 1. Red Bull's Chinese Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel came through in third but team-mate Mark Webber was controversially knocked out early on.
The British pair of Brawn GP's Jenson Button and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton start in fourth and fifth respectively.
Embattled Ferrari showed improvement and are eighth and 10th on the grid.
Yet Webber was the biggest casualty of a dramatic qualifying session, finishing down in 19th after being blocked during a pacey lap late on by Force India's Adrian Sutil in the first knockout phase.
"It doesn't matter if I protest," the Australian told BBC Sport. "My race is screwed."
"I don't usually get caught out in traffic but it was the worst corner [the last] to get nailed on. An absolute disaster."
Sutil, who himself finished in 16th but is likely to face a grid penalty, admitted his mistake afterwards.
"It was a tricky incident," he said. "I saw Webber in my mirrors but I thought also he was on an out lap so I defended my position.
"There was a big confusion, I just didn't know what to do. I will go and apologise [to Webber] now."

606: DEBATE

For the first time this season we are seeing the true pace of the cars. It was an exciting qualifying session and bodes well for a close race tomorrow...

PhilSlocombe

Though they have been increasingly impressive since the first race in Australia, Toyota's achievement marks another surprise twist in an already-riveting season which some feared may be dominated by Brawn after Button romped to victory in the first two GPs of 2009.
But Red Bull's historic one-two finish in Shanghai showed their growing strength - and Toyota are now flexing their muscles as they bid to become another team blocking out the progress of traditional powerhouses Ferrari and McLaren.
"This is a great result for the team," said Italy's Trulli after grabbing his first pole since the United States GP in 2005.
"We have worked very hard for this, and I'm very happy. I feel very comfortable ahead of tomorrow's race."
Toyota have never won a GP and president John Howett stressed that the Japanese team were using a using a "fairly aggressive" strategy in order to break that deadlock on Sunday.
"The car has been quick all season and between the top three teams it's very close," he said.
"We were pushing to be on the front two rows because of the tyre situations. If it's hot, the soft tyre is quite difficult to manage so we need some free air if we are going to use it."
More to follow.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...ne/8018039.stm