2019 Bahrain GP – Qualifying – Ferrari fastest on the straights

Sebastian Vettel set the highest speed in the 2019 Bahrain GP qualifying and he and Charles Leclerc took the first two places on speed measurements at the end of the first and second sector of Bahrain International Circuit.

Hamilton and Wolff have pointed out after qualifying that Mercedes had lost most of the time compared to Ferrari on the straightline and they were aware of this when the qualifying already started which means it was too late to change the downforce settings.

Vettel was the fastest with 327.7 km/h on the main straight speed trap and interestingly, four different engine manufacturers took the first four places – Ferrari ahead of Renault, Mercedes and Honda.

Leclerc was 4.2 km/h slower than his teammate, indicating that he was using more downforce and Vettel might have an advantage in the race, and Hamilton was 4.9 km/h slower than Vettel and only 0.7 km/h slower than Leclerc who was the fastest in the first sector.

Bottas was 0.3 km/h slower than Hamilton, suggesting that Mercedes drivers use the same level of downforce, just like Haas, Red Bull and McLaren drivers.

Haas drivers were slowest of all with 316.8 and 319.0 km/h, while Norris and Sainz were only 16th and 17th fastest for McLaren, although they both advanced in Q3, just like Haas drivers.

Norris is the only driver who has reached a speed of over 300 km/h at the start – finish line, and closest to that was Raikkonen, who reached 299.0 km/h.