Maiden F1 pole for Kubica, BMW in Bahrain

The Pole beat favourite Felipe Massa (Ferrari), who had dominated Friday practice, by 0.027 seconds.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen will share the second row.

Massa held provisional pole after the first flying laps of Q3, but only by 0.011 seconds over Kubica.

Hamilton then briefly beat both when he lapped in 1:33.292 on his second run, but the McLaren driver did not stay on top for long, as Kubica responded with a 1:33.096.

Although Massa's second lap was sufficient to reclaim the front row position from Hamilton, his time of 1:33.123 was not enough to beat the BMW driver to pole.

World champion Raikkonen could only manage fourth, three tenths of a second slower than teammate Massa. Heikki Kovalainen completed the top five in the second McLaren.

Kubica's teammate Nick Heidfeld was 0.7 seconds slower than the pole-sitter in sixth place for BMW.

Jarno Trulli (Toyota) and Nico Rosberg (Williams) will share the fourth row, Trulli having been second fastest in the first qualifying segment.

Jenson Button got Honda into the top ten for the first time this season, edging up to 10th in the final moments of Q2 and then securing ninth place, just ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso. Button's teammate Rubens Barrichello will start 12th.

Red Bull Racing had a disappointing session. While Mark Webber missed out on a top ten spot by 0.009 seconds and will start 11th, while teammate David Coulthard blamed a straightforward lack of speed for his Q1 elimination after ending up 17th on the grid. He was 0.018 seconds away from making it through to Q2.

Timo Glock (Toyota), Nelson Piquet (Renault) and Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) could not match their respective teammates Trulli, Alonso and Rosberg, and were knocked out in Q2.

While Glock briefly made it up to ninth before other drivers' improvements pushed him back to 13th, Piquet and Nakajima's best efforts were only good enough for 14th and 16th.

Sebastien Bourdais out-qualified Toro Rosso teammate Sebastian Vettel for the first time and also made his first Q2 appearance. The Frenchman will start 15th, with Vettel only managing 19th.

Force India again failed to make it beyond Q1. Giancarlo Fisichella moved up to 18th with a last-gasp effort after abandoning his last flying lap following an error, while teammate Adrian Sutil was 20th.

The Super Aguris will fill the back row, with Anthony Davidson ahead of Takuma Sato for the first time this season.

The Japanese driver caused a brief red flag after spinning on the exit of the final corner, damaging his car's rear wing and suspension on the pit entry barrier.

Pos  Driver       Team                 Q1        Q2        Q3       Laps
 1.  Kubica       BMW Sauber           1:32.893  1:31.745  1:33.096  12
 2.  Massa        Ferrari              1:31.937  1:31.188  1:33.123  12
 3.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes     1:32.750  1:31.922  1:33.292  13
 4.  Raikkonen    Ferrari              1:32.652  1:31.933  1:33.418  12
 5.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes     1:33.057  1:31.718  1:33.488  12
 6.  Heidfeld     BMW Sauber           1:33.137  1:31.909  1:33.737  15
 7.  Trulli       Toyota               1:32.493  1:32.159  1:33.994  19
 8.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota      1:32.903  1:32.185  1:34.015  22
 9.  Button       Honda                1:32.793  1:32.362  1:35.057  17
10.  Alonso       Renault              1:32.947  1:32.345  1:35.115  17
11.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault     1:33.194  1:32.371            12
12.  Barrichello  Honda                1:32.944  1:32.508            12
13.  Glock        Toyota               1:32.800  1:32.528            15
14.  Piquet       Renault              1:32.975  1:32.790            15
15.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:33.415  1:32.915            15
16.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota      1:33.386  1:32.943            15
17.  Coulthard    Red Bull-Renault     1:33.433                       7
18.  Fisichella   Force India-Ferrari  1:33.501                       5
19.  Vettel       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:33.562                       9
20.  Sutil        Force India-Ferrari  1:33.845                       6
21.  Davidson     Super Aguri-Honda    1:34.140                       9
22.  Sato         Super Aguri-Honda    1:35.725                       5