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36 SERIES leader and defending world champion Lewis Hamilton secured his fourth straight pole position of the season yesterday when he out- paced all his rivals in qualifying for today's Bahrain Grand Prix. The 30-year-old Briton, in un- touchable form, crushed his oppo- nents' efforts to stay with him as he delivered a stunning final lap in one minute and 32.571 seconds. This lifted him clear of German Se- bastian Vettel of Ferrari, on the front row of the grid, and his Mercedes team-mate and rival Nico Rosberg, who was third ahead of Finn Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari. "I feel great, very happy," he said afterwards. "That was the target, to try to master this track. That's how it's gone this weekend. The laps were pretty good, you can always improve, but I'm grateful to have this beast underneath me and really feel I can attack the corners here." The two Williams of Finn Valtteri Bottas and Brazilian Felipe Massa were fifth and sixth ahead of Aus- tralian Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull and German Nico Hulkenberg of Force India. Hamilton was four-tenths of a second faster than Vettel and half a second quicker than a disappointed Rosberg, who had been bidding for a third successive Bahrain pole in a bid to rekindle his title challenge after winning just one of the last 12 races. Rosberg admitted: "Strategy-wise, I got it wrong today... I was thinking too much about the race and I under- estimated Sebastian's speed. "I took it easy in Q2 to save the race tyres, so I lacked the rhythm for Q3. That's where I went wrong today. Being third is not ideal." It was Hamilton's first pole in Bah- rain, the first time he has taken four poles in a row and the 42nd of his career. Vettel delighted Ferrari's fans and management. He said: "I am very happy with second today. It was a tough session, I didn't find the rhythm to begin with, but at the end it was getting better and I could push. Very happy with the front row – in the race we are maybe a bit closer so let's see what happens." The opening Q1 session saw the usual suspects in control once they switched to soft tyres with Hamilton emerging fastest ahead of Bottas and Rosberg. Spaniard Fernando Alonso, nota- bly, reached Q2 for the first time in his McLaren Honda while Rosberg, having considered staying on me- dium tyres and a banker lap, had to make a late second run on softs to deliver his time. Out went Venezuelan Pastor Mal- donado of Lotus, after suffering familiar Renault engine problems, Russian Daniil Kvyat in his Red Bull, bright Briton Will Stevens and his Manor Marussia team-mate Span- iard Roberto Merhi and luckless 2009 champion Briton Jenson Button who failed to clock a serious time, again, in his McLaren Honda and managed only three laps. By the time Q2 was under way, the temperatures were dropping and the lights were on to create a stunning atmosphere to match Hamilton's lap in 1:32.669 which was clearly the fastest. It was more than a second quicker than Rosberg's, set just min- utes earlier. Raikkonen was second quickest and both Massa and Vettel were fast- er than Rosberg, who was fifth, just ahead of Bottas. For Hamilton it was a major signal of intent before the top ten shootout. Out went Mexican Sergio Perez of Force India, Brazilian Felipe Nasr and his Sauber team-mate Swede Marcus Ericsson, Alonso, who was 14th, and Dutch teenager Max Ver- stappen of Toro Rosso. The Q1 showdown began with Vettel and Raikkonen hurrying out to begin the session for Ferrari with the Mercedes men soon following to set the preliminary pace on the first runs. MARC Marquez took a blistering pole to finish 0.5s ahead of his rivals, with Aleix Espargaro and Andrea Iannone completing the front row. MotoGP riders took to the 4.8 km Termas de Rio Hondo circuit on Saturday for Qualifying, to decide who will be starting where, when the lights go out for the race on Sunday. As usual the top ten riders from Prac- tice automatically made it through to the second qualifying session, along with the top two riders from Q1. A hotly contested Q1 saw Monster Yamaha Tech 3's Bradley Smith and the Open class Avintia Racing Ducati of Hector Barbera make it through to the second qualifying session, at the expense of the Satellite bikes of Yon- ny Hernandez and Smith's teammate Pol Espargaro. The excitement in the air was pal- pable before riders took to the track for Q2. Could this be the first time Suzuki would claim a pole position since Chris Vermeulen at Assen in 2007? Or would we see another dra- matic last minute lap from Marquez as we did in Austin? It was time to find out as Q2 got underway in near perfect conditions, with the sun shining and a track tem- perature of 42 degrees. As we got to the business end of the 15 minute session, riders headed out on fresh rubber to set a flying lap, and it was Marc Marquez who laid down a marker to the rest of the field with just over 5 minutes to go. Mar- quez improved on this time as the session drew to an end to finish with a 1'37.802, as none of the other riders had a response to the Spaniards pace. Marquez alternated between his two bikes, seems to enjoy himself: "It was a lot of fun, because we used a three- tyre strategy and it worked well." The reigning MotoGP™ World Champion expects things to be harder on Sunday though: "We ex- pect a pretty tough race with even higher temperatures than today. My strongest rivals - Jorge and Valentino - are starting from the second row, so I hope to have a good start and a strong race." The Team Suzuki Ecstar GSX-RR of Aleix Espargaro (+0.514s) finished in 2nd, continuing an excellent week- end for the returning manufacturer. The fast and flowing Termas de Rio Hondo circuit plays to the strengths of the chassis of the Suzuki, with the absence of a long straight allowing Espargaro to be quick despite the bikes lack of straight-line speed. The Spanish rider alluded to the fact the race will be harder: "We will use the hardest tyre, not because we are using the tyre up, but because after the first 2-3 laps the chattering is unbearable. We don't have the pace of Vale, Jorge or Marc on the hard tyre, but we are not that far away, and our objective is to try and finish in the top 6." Andrea Iannone (+0.665s) com- pleted the front row on the Ducati Team GP15 as he, like Espargaro, took advantage of the softer tyre op- tion available to both teams to set a flying lap. The Italian said he will use the harder tyre compound during the race, after expressing his joy at achieving his first front row start of the season: "I am so happy as it is re- ally important for us start the race in front of the others, I am very happy about this. Tomorrow I will try and fight for the top 5, and I will be trying my best to look after my tyres." CWM LCR Hondas Cal Crutchlow (+0.683s) will start from the front of the second row, as he once again im- pressed during Practice and Qualify- ing. The British rider was not happy with his final time despite finishing in 4th: "I made a mistake one time on my own to miss a lap, but the two other times I came up behind a slower rider. Lorenzo decided in the middle of the lap that he wanted to go fast, but then in the last sector was really slow and I nearly hit him. I lost three-tenths in that sector, which would have put me second. The next lap I pushed, I met Viñales after he slowed following his best lap so I nev- er had enough time to get back to the flag. This is racing though, and we start from fourth. I'm disappointed because we had the pace to be in the 1'37s," Movistar Yamaha's Jorge Loren- zo (+0.683s) finished in 5th, af- ter recording a lap time identical to Crutchlow, but due to the fact Lorenzo's 2nd fastest lap was slower than Crutchlow's, the Spaniard has to start behind him on the grid: "In qualifying my first lap was very good but the second one I made too many mistakes and I couldn't improve the time. It's a pity because without any mistakes I could be in second place. That's racing; sometimes you don't get the perfect lap." Lorenzo admitting he still has a choice to make regarding his tyres: "We will probably go for the harder rear tyre but we still have to decide on the front for tomorrow's race." Iannone's teammate Andrea Dovizioso (+0.718s) will complete the 2nd row as Ducati continued to impress by getting both bikes on the front two rows, although questions remain as to how the medium and hard tyre compounds will fare dur- ing the race compared to the extra hard: "I was unable to put together a good complete lap, and it's a pity that I missed out on the front row by so little, but it's not a big problem. In my opinion it will be a very difficult race because everyone will have to man- age their rear tyres, but we are fast and so it will be very important to get a good start." Pramac Racing's Danilo Petrucci will start from 7th on the grid, with the Movistar Yamaha of Valentino Rossi over a second off the pace of Marquez in 8th. Rossi wasn't happy with his performance: "I am very up- set for the qualifying because I feel I could do better. Our strategy was not perfect, we arrived in traffic and unfortunately it was not possible to improve. On the other side, with the hard tyres the bike works well and I have a good pace, that is most impor- tant for the race." Maverick Viñales completed the third row in 9th, with Monster Yama- ha Tech 3's Bradley Smith rounding out the top ten, ahead of the Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Racing Honda of Scott Redding. Hector Barbera heads the Open class in 12th and will start in front of the Satellite bikes of Yonny Hernan- dez (13th) and Pol Espargaro (18th), while Eugene Laverty was the lead- ing Open Honda and will start from the 5th row in 14th place. Sport maltatoday, SUNDAY, 19 APRIL 2015 FORMULA 1 MOTOGP Pole position for Hamilton ahead of Bahrain GP Lewis Hamilton Márquez dominates to take Argentina pole Marc Marquez