Charles Leclerc leads Sebastian Vettel as Ferrari dominate qualifying in Bahrain

Charles Leclerc has qualified on pole for the first time in his Formula 1 career, as Ferrari blow Mercedes away with a front-row lockout. Neither Hamilton or Bottas were able to get close to the Italian team who are dominating proceedings in Bahrain. The Monegasque driver set a 1:27.866, which is a new track record for the Bahrain International Circuit.

With Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen low on tyres, they stayed in the garage for the first run in Q3. Mercedes closed the gap in the final session to just two-tenths, but it wasn’t enough to spoil the Ferrari party.

Sebastian Vettel managed to lift himself into second on his single run, but he was still 0.3 seconds behind his younger teammate!
Leclerc’s final time of 1:27.866 – a new track record – ensured he claimed his first pole position in Formula 1, and wound up almost three-tenths clear of Vettel.

Hamilton wound up just 0.030s behind Vettel while title leader Bottas was 0.066s back in fourth position.

Red Bull struggled for pace throughout the weekend but Max Verstappen salvaged fifth position, edging Haas’ Kevin Magnussen by just 0.005s, as the Honda-powered team was dragged into the midfield fight.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was the lead McLaren driver in seventh position, with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren rookie Lando Norris covered by just 0.028s at the tail end of Q3.

Daniel Ricciardo again failed to make it through to Q3 but faced a deficit of just 0.017s to Raikkonen in Q2, such was the competitive nature of the midfield in that session.

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Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon again out-qualified team-mate Daniil Kvyat, with the Anglo-Thai 12th and Kvyat slowest of the 15 Q2 runners.

They sandwiched Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly – who has struggled throughout the weekend on the Soft tyres – and Racing Point’s Sergio Perez.

It marked another disappointing result for Gasly in the wake of his Q1 exit in Australia.

Antonio Giovinazzi’s subdued weekend continued as he classified only 16th while Nico Hulkenberg was the biggest casualty of Q1 as he dropped out in 17th position.

Hulkenberg had spent most of the weekend towards the front of the midfield group but he’ll line up from row nine on Sunday.

Racing Point’s Lance Stroll was 18th while Williams occupied its now customary position at the rear of the field.

George Russell again claimed honours between the team-mates but his advantage over Robert Kubica was just 0.040s.

Russell, though, was over 1.5s behind nearest rival Stroll.

Sunday’s 57-lap Grand Prix is scheduled for 18:00 local time

Bahrain – Qualifying Result

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:27.866
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:28.160	0.294
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:28.190	0.324
4	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:28.256	0.390
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:28.752	0.886
6	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:28.757	0.891
7	Carlos Sainz	McLaren	1:28.813	0.947
8	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:29.015	1.149
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	1:29.022	1.156
10	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:29.043	1.177
11	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1:29.488
12	Alexander Albon	Toro Rosso	1:29.513
13	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull	1:29.526
14	Sergio Perez	Racing Point	1:29.756
15	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:29.854
16	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	1:30.026
17	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:30.034
18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point	1:30.217
19	George Russell	Williams	1:31.759
20	Robert Kubica	Williams	1:31.799