Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock delivered on the promise Toyota has been showing all season to lock out the front row of the grid for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Qualifying master Trulli pulled out all the stops in a thrilling climax to Q3 to seize pole position from team-mate Glock and head the Japanese manufacturer’s first ever grid one-two.
Trulli prevailed by 0.3s, with Glock another three-tenths clear of Q2 pacesetter Sebastian Vettel – a margin almost certainly boosted by an aggressive fuel strategy.
But after a difficult Friday, Toyota seems to have found the set-up sweet spot with the TF109 and always looked like contending for pole.
Vettel will share the second row with championship leader Jenson Button, while reigning champion Lewis Hamilton will start fifth in the improving McLaren after by far his best showing of the season so far.
The two knockout sessions were a fitting warm-up for the main battle, Vettel setting the pace in both with the Toyotas hot on his heels.
In Q2 the Red Bull driver again showed his impressive ability to reel off an ultra-quick lap without the need for a prior ‘banker’ run, saving a new set of super-soft tyres for the race in the process.
Toyota came to the fore in the Q3 run-off, topping the charts by a comfortable margin on both runs.
On each occasion Glock was the first to show his hand and set a benchmark that fleetingly gave him pole before Trulli eclipsed him.
Vettel had to settle for third, fractionally ahead of Button, who admits that single-lap pace is currently a slight weakness of the Brawn BGP001 but believes he is in stronger shape for the race.
The points leader also expressed concern at the presence of four KERS-equipped cars close behind him on the grid, which is likely to leave him on the defensive at the start.
The first of those is fellow Brit Hamilton, who proved the strides McLaren is making with its MP4-24, even if team-mate Heikki Kovalainen just missed the cut for Q3 and will start 11th.
Rubens Barrichello was sixth fastest in the second Brawn ahead of Renault’s Fernando Alonso, while Ferrari was simply relieved to get both its cars into Q3 with eighth for Felipe Massa and 10th for Kimi Raikkonen.
Once again Nico Rosberg couldn’t live up to his practice form and will sandwich the Ferraris in ninth, three places in front of Williams team-mate Kazuki Nakajima.
Both BMWs fell at the Q2 hurdle and will share the seventh row, Robert Kubica just edging Nick Heidfeld.
Nelson Piquet, who is coming under increasing pressure to perform from the Renault management after a succession of desultory showings, broke out of Q1 for the first time this year but made a mistake on one of his Q2 runs and managed only 15th.
The luckless Mark Webber was consigned to 18th after being blocked by an inattentive Adrian Sutil on his crucial Q1 lap.
The Force India driver said he did not realise Webber was on a quick lap and apologised to the Australian, but his contrition didn't spare him from a three-place grid penalty.
Provisional Bahrain GP grid
1. TRULLI Toyota
2. GLOCK Toyota
3. VETTEL Red Bull
4. BUTTON Brawn
5. HAMILTON McLaren
6. BARRICHELLO Brawn
7. ALONSO Renault
8. MASSA Ferrari
9. ROSBERG Williams
10. RAIKKONEN Ferrari
11. KOVALAINEN McLaren
12. NAKAJIMA Williams
13. KUBICA BMW
14. HEIDFELD BMW
15. PIQUET Renault
16. BUEMI Toro Rosso
17. FISICHELLA Force India
18. WEBBER Red Bull
19. SUTIL Force India*
20. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso
* penalised 3 places for impeding Webber
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