A cool and young Sebastian Vettel from Germany stole the limelight from his compatriot and three other world champions to seize pole position in Saturday's final qualifying race at the desert Sakhir circuit in Bahrain.

The 22-year-old rising star, driving for the Red Bull team, picked up where he left off last season, when he won the closing race in Abu Dhabi.

It was bad news for seven-time world champion Schumacher, who now finds himself starting four rows back from Vettel in Sunday's final, with plenty of other heavyweights still in front of him.

After qualifying, Schumacher admitted that he had found it hard to reach peak performance, but said he was happy that his team was working well. "It is a long race and the season is even longer," he said.

Strong German debut

Starting next to Vettel in second is Brazilian Felipe Massa, with his Ferrari colleague, Spaniard Fernando Alonso, one row behind, in third.

Britain's Lewis Hamilton in a McLaren will be starting fourth and Schumacher's German teammate, Nico Rosberg, is fifth.

Rounding out the top ten are Mark Webber in the second Red Bull car in sixth, reigning world champion Jenson Button for McLaren in eighth, Renault's Robert Kubica in ninth and German Adrian Sutil for Force India in tenth.

For Ferrari, Schumacher's former employer, it was a solid start to the season after last year's dreadful beginning. The Italians, with Massa and Alonso, look set to give Vettel - and Schumacher - a run for their money.

In fact, no one seemed terribly impressed by Schumacher's performance, but then again, everyone also knows that he is one of the toughest competitors the sport ever had. And, with four Germans in the top ten for Sunday's final, chances are that at least one of them will be finishing on the podium.

gb/dpa/AFP/apn
Editor: Andreas Illmer