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Formula One
F1: Vettel Admits Pole A Surprise
Sebastian Vettel had very enjoyable Saturday...
Adam Cooper  | http://www.speedtv.com  |  Posted March 13, 2010   Sakhir (BHR)
Sebastian Vettel starts first in Valencia. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Sebastian Vettel says he was surprised to find himself on pole position for the opening race of the season.

Vettel was second fastest in Q1 and quickest in Q2 before securing the pole in Bahrain Saturday, ahead of the Ferraris.

“A big surprise,” said Vettel. “I mean in winter testing no-one really knew where we were. Of course it was clear that there were four teams pretty strong, but close to each other. To be honest yesterday it was a very tough day for us and we had not as much running as we were hoping for.

“Another long night especially for the mechanics, not a lot of sleep, some tired faces, but everyone was still keen this morning to push. I knew we had a great car but first of all you have to get it together.

“I have to say practice this morning and qualifying went pretty smoothly. Obviously I am very, very happy to be on pole, so thanks to the team. As I said the boys didn’t get much sleep in the last month with a lot of testing in a short amount of time. To come here first time everyone really shows how strong they are and to be on top is definitely a very, very nice feeling.”

Vettel said that after problems on Friday he was worried about how his weekend would turn out.

“Yesterday I have to admit we were not very happy, especially myself. We knew there was potential in the car but we were just not putting it together. On top of that we had some problems, so we did not do a lot of running. But this morning straight away it has been quite a lot better. In qualifying a very smooth session as per plan but it is never easy, especially as I saw in the last lap where I saw myself going around one-and-a-half or two-tenths slower around the lap.

“I was already thinking I have to push, push, push and it was really close. At the end of qualifying the circuit got a bit more difficult with the conditions changing all the time. The heat here is different to what we had in testing, so you could see people having quite big jumps in lap time either up or down.

“But concerning ourselves I think it was a good result and a good position to start from, but tomorrow is going to be a long, long race. It is the first race out of 19. It is not going to be a sprint, it is going to be an endurance event, so you have to take care of your car, tires and so on. But for sure there is no better position to start from than pole position.”

Vettel’s team mate Mark Webber made a mistake on his hot lap and was over 1.1s behind in sixth place.

Adam Cooper notched up his 25th season as a racing journalist in 2009. Born in London, England, he saw his first F1 race at age 10 in 1976. He began freelancing for Autosport magazine in 1985 and was on the fulltime staff from 1987-92. He then went freelance again, initially spending two years in Japan before following the 1994 Champcar series from a base in Indianapolis. He has not missed a Grand Prix since Suzuka ‘94, a run that has extended to Abu Dhabi ’09. Adam has written books about Eddie Irvine, Piers Courage and Michael Schumacher and hosts a race preview show on Sirius XM. He has written about F1 for SPEEDtv.com since 2005. Check out Adam's Blog or follow him on Twitter

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