Clearly. Dry. Air +24C, orbit +29C
Qualifying the first Grand Prix of the season made it possible for the first time to compare the speed of new cars in real conditions, when no one was hiding their true pace. After talks and rumours, the stopwatch put everyone in their place.
In practice, the results turned out to be curious – in the first Perez showed the best time, in the second and third – Alonso, but the riders did not attack and concentrated on setting up cars and working with rubber.
Pirelli brought a hard trio of lineups to the podium – a brand new C1 and the usual C2 and C3 as Hard, Medium and Soft. The Hard tires had no grip, the Soft tires had a significant speed advantage over the Medium.
Qualifying started twenty minutes after sunset. The heat of the day subsided, the track got faster every minute.
In the first session the Ferrari drivers made their first attempt on Medium, the rest went on Soft. Leclerc blocked the rubber on the exit lap and slowly returned to the pits. There were red flags – in the first corner Ferrari lost a piece of the aerodynamic body kit, which had to be removed. The break lasted five minutes. Sainz’s time was canceled for going off track.
After a break everyone went to Soft. Stroll’s time was removed for going off track. Sainz took the lead with a lap time of 1:30.993.
Sainz didn’t go away for the second attempt, the rest kept fighting. Carlos remained the leader. Norris and Sargent showed the same time, but Lando took first to finish 15th, and Logan along with Magnussen, Piastri, de Vries and Gasly were eliminated from further battles.
In the second session everyone went to Soft. Albon missed the first attempt. Verstappen showed the best time – 1:30.503.
Albon took to the track but the front wing broke, he fell out of the track several times and interrupted the attempt and returned to the pits.
Racers Red Bull Racing and Albon refused the second attempt, the rest kept fighting. The protocol was led by Leclerc from 1:30.282. The top ten fits in eight tenths. Norris, Bottas, Zhou, Tsunoda and Albon failed to qualify for the final.
In the final, at the first attempt, Verstappen showed the best time with a lap time of 1:29.897. Sainz made a mistake on a fast lap, Okon missed the attempt. Leclerc lost to Max in tenth, returned to the pits and left the cockpit. Hulkenberg’s time was scrapped for going off the track.
At the second attempt, Verstappen got on and completed the lap in 1:29.708.
Max Verstappen won qualifying in Bahrain with his 21st career pole position. Sergio Perez showed the second fastest time – the entire front row of the grid in Bahrain at Red Bull Racing, Ferrari racers starting from second, Alonso and Russell in third.
Qualifying results
| Pilot | Team | 1 session | 2 session | 3 session | ||||||
| m | Time | kr | m | Time | kr | m | Time | kr | ||
| 1. M. Verstappen | Red Bull | 7 | 1:31,295 | 6 | 2 | 1:30,503 | 3 | 1 | 1:29,708 | 6 |
| 2. C. Perez | Red Bull | 10 | 1:31,479 | 6 | 7 | 1:30,746 | 3 | 2 | 1:29,846 | 6 |
| 3. Sch.Lecler | Ferrari | 3 | 1:31.094 | 8 | 1 | 1:30.282 | 6 | 3 | 1:30,000 | 3 |
| 4.K Sainz | Ferrari | 1 | 1:30.993 | 6 | 5 | 1:30,515 | 6 | 4 | 1:30.154 | 6 |
| 5. F. Alonso | Aston Martin | 4 | 1:31.158 | 6 | 6 | 1:30.645 | 6 | 5 | 1:30.336 | 3 |
| 6.D Russell | Mercedes | 2 | 1:31.057 | 6 | 3 | 1:30,507 | 6 | 6 | 1:30.340 | 3 |
| 7. L. Hamilton | Mercedes | 13 | 1:31,543 | 6 | 4 | 1:30,513 | 6 | 7 | 1:30,384 | 3 |
| 8. L. Walk | Aston Martin | 5 | 1:31,184 | 6 | 10 | 1:31.127 | 6 | 8 | 1:30,836 | 6 |
| 9. E. Okon | Alps | 12 | 1:31,508 | 6 | 9 | 1:30,914 | 6 | 9 | 1:30,984 | 3 |
| 10. N. Hulkenberg | hare | 6 | 1:31.204 | 8 | 8 | 1:30,809 | 6 | 10 | – | 3 |
| 11. L. Norris | McLaren | 15 | 1:31,652 | 7 | eleven | 1:31,381 | 6 | |||
| 12. V. Bottas | Alfa Romeo | eleven | 1:31,504 | 6 | 12 | 1:31,443 | 6 | |||
| 13. G. Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 14 | 1:31,615 | 6 | 13 | 1:31,473 | 6 | |||
| 14. Y. Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 8 | 1:31,400 | 9 | 14 | 1:32,510 | 6 | |||
| 15. A. Albon | Willems | 9 | 1:31,461 | 6 | 15 | – | 2 | |||
| 16. L. Sargent | Willems | 16 | 1:31,652 | 6 | ||||||
| 17. K. Magnussen | hare | 17 | 1:31,892 | 6 | ||||||
| 18. O. Piastri | McLaren | 18 | 1:32.101 | 7 | ||||||
| 19.N. deVries | AlphaTauri | 19 | 1:32.121 | 9 | ||||||
| 20. P. Gasly | Alps | 20 | 1:32.181 | 6 | ||||||
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
