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Button sets a 1:35.057, Rosberg betters that with a 1:34.776

Massa fastest ahead of Kubica and Hamilton

2nd and final run underway

Kubica on Pole! That was a surprise given Massa's dominance

Massa takes second with Hamilton in 3rd.

Raikkonen, Kovalainen, Heidfeld, Trulli, Rosberg, Button and Alonso make the top 10.

Interesting qualifications. I wonder what that means for tomorrow...

Congratulations to BMW Sauber and Robert Kubica for their first Pole position. Well done!

It remains to be seen though if they can match the pace of the Ferraris as Massa in particular was dominant all weekend. It also appears that Raikkonen isn't too happy on this track.

And according to Toyota's Pascal Vasselon, the track conditions were very tricky:

This weekend has been completely dominated by track conditions. When it's windy in Bahrain the track becomes dusty and sandy and that has determined the performance profile throughout the practice sessions. The wind and the dust leads to a contamination issue on the tyres which means you sometimes don't get the grip back from a given set.

Certainly looks set for an interesting race!

Team by team summary (GMM)

BMW-SAUBER

Robert Kubica and BMW-Sauber's first pole earned even the personal congratulations of Bernie Ecclestone as the team celebrated in the paddock, although many believe the deadpan Pole is carrying less fuel than his nearest rivals. Team boss Mario Theissen - albeit delighted - admits that Ferrari "still has the faster car". Teammate Nick Heidfeld is sixth, having struggled all weekend with the balance of his car, particularly on single laps. "Obviously I'm not where I want to be," he said.

FERRARI

Felipe Massa has been the class of the field all weekend, and was miserable as he blamed bad luck, traffic and a key mistake for dropping to P2 in the decisive qualifying phase. "We still have a great car," he warned. He threatened to incur the stewards' wrath by apparently failing to slow for the yellow flags after Takuma Sato's Q1 crash. Teammate Kimi Raikkonen was not happy with his fourth spot.

MCLAREN-MERCEDES

Lewis Hamilton, third on the grid, claims no ill-effects from his Friday shunt, insisting that a perfect lap would have delivered pole. Team boss Ron Dennis dismissed Kubica's pole by assuming that the BMW is low on fuel. "We have a good race strategy," BMW's Theissen answered coyly. Heikki Kovalainen is fifth.

TOYOTA

Seventh place accurately reflects Jarno Trulli's status so far in 2008 -- best of the rest behind the two Ferraris, McLarens and BMWs. Teammate Timo Glock failed to make Q3.

WILLIAMS-TOYOTA

Much better pace compared to Sepang puts Nico Rosberg back in Q3 (eighth), after he even topped the time sheets in a topsy-turvy Saturday morning practice. "This is more or less the best we can do," he said. Teammate Kazuki Nakajima was the slowest of the Q2 qualifiers.

HONDA

Jenson Button's feat of putting his RA108 in the top-ten got plenty of paddock mentions, and he even pipped Fernando Alonso to ninth on the grid, despite running out of soft tyres for Q3. Rubens Barrichello, again a tenth or two off his teammate's pace, lines up twelfth, after a gearbox issue disturbed his lap in Q2.

RENAULT

Alonso was the slowest of the elite Q3 qualifiers, and his Q2 margin over teammate Nelson Piquet Jr was a comfortable four tenths.

RED BULL-RENAULT

Mark Webber missed beating Alonso or Button into Q3 by a fraction of a heart-beat, but "we weren't quick enough to go through," the Australian plainly admitted. Teammate David Coulthard did not even break out of the company of Q1 stragglers -- albeit by the barest of margins.


TORO ROSSO-FERRARI

Champ Car sensation Sebastien Bourdais deserves a special mention for proving the class of the Red Bull junior team so far this weekend (fifteenth), as his highly rated young teammate Sebastian Vettel dropped out with the backmarkers in Q1. Even so, the gap between them was less than two tenths.

FORCE INDIA-FERRARI

Giancarlo Fisichella is again the quicker Force India driver, but he and Adrian Sutil are still yet to break out of Q1 in 2008. "We are close, but not quite there at the moment," Sutil said.

SUPER AGURI-HONDA

Anthony Davidson takes the rare honour of out-qualifying his teammate Sato, after the Japanese lost control of his car out of the last corner, tagged the barriers, and brought out a brief red flag.

How much time left before the race?

Race start in about 10 minutes. (2:30 PM local time - 11:30 GMT)

Robert Kubica secured his first ever Pole position yesterday although it is widely expected to be lighter than the other front runners.

Felipe Massa who has been dominant this weekend took second and complained of traffic that prevented him from grabbing Pole.

Lewis Hamilton is in 3rd place while Kimi Raikkonen is 4th

Kovalainen is in 5th with Heidfeld alongside him

And Trulli and Rosberg make up the top 8

Air temperature is 29 degrees while track temperature is 39 degrees.

It is windy out there and that could make things interesting

Tyre warmers are off and the formation lap is underway.

Nearly all the cars are starting on the softer compound

Rosberg is the only driver in the top 10 to start on the harder compound

Lights ....

Poor start from Kubica drops him into second behind Massa.

Poor start by Hamilton!!