Charles Leclerc claimed the first pole of his Formula 1 career with a brilliant qualifying performance at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver was flawless throughout with both his laps in Q3 enough to secure P1 and his second saw him set a new lap record of 1m28.886s, a tenth clear of last year’s pole.
Sebastian Vettel wrapped up the front row for the Scuderia, but it was a poor first run in Q2 that ultimately restricted to German to a single flying lap in Q3 which put him on the back foot against his teammate.
As for Mercedes, the second row was the best they could achieve as Lewis Hamilton finished a third of a second down on Leclerc in third, just ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the second Silver Arrow.
Red Bull were left looking over their shoulder rather as Max Verstappen moved upto P5 with his final Q3 effort.
In fact, the Dutchman was only 0.005s clear of Kevin Magnussen in sixth, as Haas once again led the midfield.
McLaren impressed as Carlos Sainz was only half a tenth back in seventh, with Lando Norris also making Q3 for the second straight race albeit only finishing 10th.
The gaps were very close though as less than three-tenths covered P5-P10. Romain Grosjean was eighth in the second Haas with Kimi Raikkonen hauling Alfa Romeo upto ninth.
Further back, Renault’s single lap pace continued to be their weakness as Daniel Ricciardo sat P11.
His teammate Nico Hulkenberg, who had looked like a contender for ‘best of the rest’ in practice, would fall victim to circuit improvement as he was knocked out in Q1 in 17th.
Alex Albon impressed in P12 ahead of Pierre Gasly in 13th, as the new Red Bull driver continues to struggle at his new team.
Racing Point’s struggles continued with Sergio Perez the highest placed in 14th with Daniil Kvyat a disappointing 15th in the second Toro Rosso.
The fight to make it out of Q1 was particularly tight as 0.067s split the two Alfa Romeo’s, with Antonio Giovinazzi just missing out in P16.
Hulkenberg was only 0.08s behind in P17 as Lance Stroll also fell down to P18 as those behind him improved.
The two Williams once again completed the back row as George Russell again led teammate Robert Kubica, although the gap was only 0.04s which is much smaller than on most occasions.
Full results from qualifying can be seen below:
