Toyota’s Trulli takes pole position for Bahrain GP

SAKHIR, Bahrain— Toyota’s Jarno Trulli claimed the pole position Saturday for the Bahrain Grand Prix, with teammate Timo Glock posting the second-fastest time.

Toyota, which has never won a race, filled the front row for the first time.

Trulli clocked 1 minute, 33.431 seconds at the Sakhir circuit for only the fourth pole of his long career. It was Toyota’s third in its eighth year in Formula One and first in four years.

“It’s really nice to be first and second, for the team, for Toyota,” Trulli said. “What a great result.”

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, who won last week’s Chinese GP, will start from third, ahead of championship leader Jenson Button of Brawn GP.

Defending world champion Lewis Hamilton of McLaren and Rubens Barrichello of Brawn GP will fill the third row, with Renault’s Fernando Alonso and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa completing the top eight.

Trulli was surprised by his positioning as the team had problems with its fuel and brakes during the early stages of qualifying.

“There is much more potential in the car,” Trulli said. “I must say I am very confident for the race because of my race pace and looking after the tires this weekend.”

Vettel was the fastest in the second part of qualifying but was just slower than Glock and Trulli in the final session.

“I am personally a bit surprised by how big the gap was to Jarno — it was very, very large,” Vettel said. “It’s very important to be in front of Jenson.”

Both Ferrari cars made the final qualifying session for the first time this year, as the teams seeks its first points to avoid its worst start to an F1 season.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber will start from 19th in the biggest qualifying surprise. The Australian, who finished a career-best second in China, was forced by Force India’s Adrian Sutil to swerve on his final flying lap during the closing stages of the first session.

“You don’t usually get caught out in traffic and that was the worst corner to get blocked,” Webber said. “Absolute disaster.”

Sutil claimed innocence but was judged by stewards to have “unnecessarily impeded another driver” and penalized three grid places, relegating him to 19th.

“I didn’t know Mark Webber was on a flying lap. I was trying to leave space for Alonso, there was a little misunderstanding,” Sutil said.

1. (9) Jarno Trulli, Toyota RVX-09, 208.53.

2. (10) Timo Glock, Toyota RVX-09, 207.905.

3. (15) Sebastian Vettel, Renault RS27, 207.235.

4. (22) Jenson Button, Mercedes-Benz FO108W, 207.171.

5. (1) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-Benz FO108W, 206.837.

6. (23) Rubens Barrichello, Mercedes-Benz FO108W, 206.742.

7. (7) Fernando Alonso, Renault RS27, 206.001.

8. (3) Felipe Massa, Ferrari 056, 205.48.

9. (16) Nico Rosberg, Toyota RVX-09, 207.797.

10. (4) Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari 056, 204.269.

11. (2) Heikki Kovalainen, Mercedes-Benz FO108W, 208.953.