Thanks for joining this lap-by-lap blog of the Bahrain GP qualifying. We’ll be back tomorrow for the big race itself. Here are the headlines:
Oscar Piastri put Formula One champions and leaders McLaren on pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix with Mercedes’ George Russell joining the Australian on the front row for Sunday’s race.
Piastri’s championship-leading teammate Lando Norris will line up only sixth on the starting grid, with closest rival Max Verstappen seventh for Red Bull.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc qualified third and Mercedes’ Italian rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli fourth with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly fifth. Reuters
McLaren's Oscar Piastri celebrates after qualifying in pole position with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who qualified third. Photograph: Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters
P1 Piastri: “I felt comfortable out there pretty much all weekend. We had good pace in practice and in qualifying the other cars caught up a bit more than I wanted. But still very happy.
“There’s no better place to start than on pole, so can’t thank the team enough for the car they’ve given me.”
P2 Russell: “To be second on the grid is a bonus. Congrats to Oscar. I’m excited for tomorrow now. I think being realistic it will be a challenge to fight with Oscar.”
P3 Leclerc: “I didn’t expect P3. I knew I had to be patient and wait for the track to come to us in P3. As soon as we put on the new tyres it felt better. I’ve found my way little by little.
“The team has pushed like crazy to bring the upgrades. I don’t think it’s the best track to have these upgrades but if we are P3 today, the upgrades helped.”
It looks like a wheel spin on Turn 1 cost Norris some valuable time. The margins are so tight, especially given how quickly some of the other cars are going.
George Russell and his teammate Kimi Antonelli – who is only 18 remember – will fancy their chances of podium finish for Mercedes tomorrow.
We’re hearing that Nico Hulkenberg has had a qualifying time deleted retrospectively so the final qualifying standings will get a reshuffle. Alex Albon may be the one to benefit.
Verstappen still looks like he’s battling with his car. His driving talent knows no bounds and how on earth he’s been challenging for (and winning) races this season, when the other Red Bull has been floundering, is anyone’s guess.
However … Tsunoda goes 0.4secs quicker than his teammate for the first lap of Q3.
“Mercedes is dodgy,” said Hulkenberg on the Sauber team radio, referring to Mercedes’ early exit from the pit lane while the medics were still out on track. Race control have confirmed that incident is under investigation.
Big credit there must go to Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz, who in going faster than Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have interrupted the established order somewhat.
The McLarens appear to be in a league of their own at the top and destined for the front row of the grid. Unless something strange occurs …
Race control aren’t happy with the two Mercedes. Both Antonelli and Russell have been told they left the garage too soon, while the medical car was still out on the track.
Just a slap on the wrist? Or a grid penalty? We’ll see.
Eesh, we’ve had a nasty crash. Esteban Ocon has careered into the barriers and his car is an absolute mess. Thankfully, he’s signalled that he’s OK. Replays show the Haas driver over-accelerating out of a corner and losing control.
We’ll have a delay here while all the safety procedures get done.
Haas driver Esteban Ocon walks away from his wreck. Photograph: Darko Bandić/AP
It’s interesting that the five drivers eliminated have come from five different teams. Williams, RB, Sauber, Aston Martin and Haas all have one driver in, one out.
Lawson has been told his RB had an issue with DRS. It never rains but it pours.
Alex Albon isn’t a happy bunny. “Sorry guys, but I really …” he trails off on the team radio. The Williams driver has become used to getting through to Q2 of late but he’ll start tomorrow’s race towards the back.
Tsunoda continues to battle with his Red Bull car but has snuck through to Q2.
The two Ferraris are out on the track, with Charles Leclerc jumping under 1min 31.5 seconds … however both Norris and Piastri have just pipped that time, going closer to 1min 31.
The Mercedes duo of Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell clock times good enough for the top 10.
Q1: 1min 32.362secs is the first time clocked by anyone – Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, with Hulkenberg half a second off that. Stroll’s lap time won’t count due to a minor infringement.
Plenty of the other drivers are heading out now, including Max Verstappen.
There’s a fair degree of wind in the air around Bahrain tonight. Temperatures have dropped to around 20C, or thereabouts, with teams still taking every effort to ensure their cars don’t overheat.
It was absolutely roasting during practice earlier.
McLaren chief Zak Brown is the next one in front of the TV cameras. He’s “excited” about the “epic Lando v Oscar battles” that we’re going to see this year.
Yet another suggestion that McLaren don’t have a No 1 or indeed a No 2 driver this year. And a reminder to him that McLaren have never won in Bahrain. “We’ve got to change that,” he smiles.
How many times does Lewis Hamilton get interviewed? It feels like a heck of a lot, yet he’s always so calm and collected.
“It’s good to see we’re taking steps forward,” he says on the modifications that have been made to the Ferrari this weekend. “I hope we can extract more from it.”
George Russell believes McLaren have the quickest car on the grid right now and that everyone else has some work to do.
This is what the British Mercedes man said:
They [McLaren] are a long way ahead in the middle sector, where the tyres are overheating.
A bit of work to do but I think we’re fighting for next best. I think it’s going to be close between us, Ferrari and Max. But unlike the first three races, I feel this race won’t be dominated by qualifying, it will be dominated by race pace and tyre degradation.
It’s hilarious that Russell is talking about Mercedes, Ferrari and … Max. Verstappen is a one-man team at this point.
Practice: Oscar Piastri and McLaren were quickest in practice in Bahrain.
The Australian was was 0.668 seconds faster than Lando Norris and 0.834 secs quicker than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who was third. Lewis Hamilton was fourth and then came the two Mercedes, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.
Max Verstappen was down in eighth with his Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda the 19th fastest of the 20 drivers who took to the track.
Things could be very different in qualifying, of course.
What does the wild and wacky world of Formula One have in store for us this afternoon? The searing heat of Bahrain is our destination today and the question is: can Max Verstappen pull another rabbit from the Red Bull hat or will the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri restore their dominance?
Those questions (and more) will be answered over the next hour or two after a few laps of this inventively-named Bahrain International Circuit. So far this season, qualifying in pole position has amounted to a fairly hefty race advantage.
To properly whet your appetite, here’s our man Giles Richards with a scene-setter from the Middle East. Let’s get started.
