MANAMA, April 5: Poland’s Robert Kubica took his and BMW Sauber’s first Formula One pole position at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday.

The 23-year-old from Krakow denied Ferrari’s Brazilian Felipe Massa the top spot with a final flying lap of one minute 33.096 seconds right at the end of qualifying at the Sakhir desert circuit.

Brazilian Massa, who won from pole position in Bahrain last year but is still without a point after two races, had dominated Friday’s practice and will be looking to revive his title challenge on Sunday.

McLaren’s 23-year-old championship leader Lewis Hamilton was third fastest and will share the second row in Sunday’s race with Ferrari’s world champion Kimi Raikkonen.

Kubica’s pole, in only his 25th grand prix, followed his front row start in the Australian season-opener and second place in Malaysia.

The first and only Pole to race in Formula One flat-spotted a tyre in his second qualifying run of the final third phase and had suffered a lot of vibration, making the car hard to handle.

BMW, overall runners-up last year after McLaren were stripped of all their points for a spying controversy, have set a target of a first race win in 2008 but champions Ferrari and McLaren have remained ahead of the rest so far.

Kubica’s pole was the first by a driver from outside those two teams since Spaniard Fernando Alonso for Renault in China in October 2006.

Hamilton was using the spare chassis after a big crash on Friday and he thanked his team for working through the night to get it ready.

McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen and BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld share the third row with Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and Williams’s Nico Rosberg behind.

Honda also celebrated their first appearance this season in the final stage of qualifying and had Briton Jenson Button in ninth place, next to Renault’s double world champion Alonso.

Starting grid: 1. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber; 2. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari; 3. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren; 4. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari; 5. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren; 6. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber; 7. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota; 8. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams—Toyota; 9. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda; 10. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault; 11. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull—Renault; 12. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda; 13. Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota; 14. Nelsinho Piquet (Brazil) Renault; 15. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso—Ferrari; 16. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams—Toyota; 17. David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull—Renault; 18. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India—Ferrari; 19. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso—Ferrari; 20. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India—Ferrari; 21. Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri—Honda; 22. Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri—Honda.

Qualifying times: 1. Kubica 1 min 33.096; 2. Massa 1:33.123; 3. Hamilton 1:33.292; 4. Raikkonen 1:33.418; 5. Kovalainen 1:33.488; 6. Heidfeld 1:33.737; 7. Trulli 1:33.994; 8. Rosberg 1:34.015; 9. Button 1:35.057; 10. Alonso 1:35.115; 11. Webber 1:32.371; 12. Barrichello 1:32.508; 13. Glock 1:32.528; 14. Piquet 1:32.790; 15. Bourdais 1:32.915; 16. Nakajima 1:32.943; 17. Coulthard 1:33.433; 18. Fisichella 1:33.501; 19. Vettel 1:33.562; 20. Sutil 1:33.845; 21. Davidson 1:34.140; 22. Sato 1:35.725.—Reuters