Germany's Sebastian Vettel, last year's Formula One championship runner-up, claimed pole position for Sunday's season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Vettel, who finished the 2009 campaign by winning two of the final three races, grabbed the sixth pole of his 44-race career, leaving the returning Michael Schumacher down in seventh place in the Brackley-built Mercedes.

The Red Bull Racing star put in a stunning hot lap in the closing ten-minute qualifying session at the Sakhir circuit to edge out Ferrari duo Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso into second and third, with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton fourth.

The 22-year-old Vettel was brilliant throughout all three sessions, finishing second in the opening 20 minutes before topping the middle 15-minute stint and then coming out on top at the end.

Vettel ultimately finished with a lap of one minute 54.101 seconds, with Massa 0.141secs adrift and Alonso a further 0.4secs down.

Hamilton won his first battle of the Britons with team-mate Jenson Button at McLaren as the world champion struggled during the course of the afternoon and will start eighth directly behind seven-times champion Schumacher.

The 41-year-old, on his comeback after three and a half years in retirement, was again bettered by his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg (fifth), as he was in all three practice sessions.

Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber starts sixth, with Robert Kubica in his Enstone-built Renault ninth behind Button, and Silverstone-based Force India's Adrian Sutil a fine tenth.