Max Verstappen showed Red Bull are the team to beat to begin 2021 with pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Dutchman went head-to-head with world champion Lewis Hamilton and emerged on top as he produced a scintillating lap at the end of Q3 to give Mercedes plenty to think about heading into the new season
Q1
At the front, Max Verstappen led from Yuki Tsunoda, as AlphaTauri emerged as the surprise package, with Lewis Hamilton in third all covered by just over a tenth.
The battle to make Q2 was fierce with the times improving dramatically on the second run.
Unfortunately for Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel, a second spin of Q1 for Nikita Mazepin at Turn 1 and an engine cut for Carlos Sainz caused a pair of yellow flags in the final moments which prevented them from improving.
As a result, Ocon starts 16th for Alpine and Vettel 18th for his first race at Aston Martin.
Nicholas Latifi was 17th for Williams, as the two Haas’ of Mick Schumacher and Mazepin completed the bottom five.
Q2
Sainz led Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc by just 0.001s at the end of Q2, but of the frontrunners, round two went to Hamilton as the world champion ended two-tenths up on Verstappen.
Red Bull, Mercedes and AlphaTauri went for the medium compound tyre, as that will be what is used to start the race on Sunday.
But that move would backfire for Sergio Perez as he missed out on Q3 by 0.035s in 11th, Tsunoda too didn’t improve on his second lap and dropped to 13th.
The two Alfa Romeo’s ran 12th and 14th with Antonio Giovinazzi ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. George Russell continued his run of never being outqualified at Williams in 15th.
Q3
Finally, in Q3, the gloves were off between Hamilton and Verstappen with just 0.023s separating them in the Dutchman’s favour after the first run.
On the second run, however, the Red Bull took off as Max improved to a 1m28.997s, putting him almost four-tenths clear of Hamilton.
Valtteri Bottas was third with Leclerc putting Ferrari in fourth, less than a tenth behind the second Mercedes.
Pierre Gasly sat third after the initial Q3 laps before slipping to fifth in what was still an impressive session for the Frenchman.
that’s P5 for @PierreGASLY!! what a fantastic lap!! ⛽️
tomorrow is going to be fun ✌️ pic.twitter.com/M0vzWUAQvL
— Scuderia AlphaTauri (@AlphaTauriF1) March 27, 2021
Daniel Ricciardo pipped Lando Norris into sixth as the battle between the two McLaren drivers wrote its first chapter.
Sainz led fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso in eighth and ninth, as Lance Stroll rounded out the top 10.
A thrilling first qualifying of 2021 sets up beautifully the Verstappen/Hamilton duel F1 has been craving. Now we wait for the race!
Full results from qualifying can be seen below:
