Max Verstappen took a commanding pole position in the first race of the season in Bahrain with a four-tenths advantage over world champion Lewis Hamilton while Valtteri Bottas finished third in the second Mercedes.
Verstappen was the fastest (1:29.526) after the first laps in Q3, 0.023 seconds ahead of Hamilton, and third was Gasly with half a second behind while Bottas was only fourth in the second Mercedes, two tenths behind Gasly.
But in second runs Hamilton improved on Verstappen’s time before the Dutchman retaliated with a nearly four-tenths better lap for the first pole position this season.
Hamilton finished second with 0.388 s behind and Bottas came close to Hamilton with a good second lap and finished third.
Leclerc had very good qualifying for Ferrari which finished in fourth place ahead of Gasly in AlphaTauri and two McLaren drivers in sixth and seventh while Sainz, Alonso and Stroll finished in the last three places among the top ten.
The air temperature at the start of qualifying was 30 degrees Celsius and the asphalt temperature was 35 degrees, 12 degrees less than in the hot third free practice.
Williams drivers Russell and Latifi were the first to take the track in the first part of the qualifying, but were soon followed by Haas drivers Schumacher and Mazepin.
Schumacher set the first qualifying lap (1:33.861) after which the drivers changed very quickly at the top and after the first fast laps the fastest was Verstappen in Red Bull ahead of Tsunoda in AlphaTauri and Hamilton in Mercedes who were a tenth slower.
After the second rounds in Q1, we got the first surprises of this season – in Q2, Ocon in Alpine (16th), Latifa in Williams (17th) and Vettel in Aston Martin, who was only 18th in his first qualifying for the new team, did not progress to Q2.
Haas drivers took the last two positions and Schumacher was eight tenths faster than Mazepin in his first Formula One qualifying.
Sainz advanced to the second part of the qualifying, but stopped on the track because his engine shut down, but still managed to continue in the Q2.
Drivers of Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren and AlphaTauri at the beginning of Q2 came out on medium (C3) tyres to try to progress in Q3 on them and start the race on more durable compound.
Hamilton was the fastest after the first laps in Q2 with a two-tenths advantage over Verstappen and Bottas and fourth was Norris in McLaren ahead of Sainz, Alonso and Leclerc while AlphaTauri drivers finished eighth and ninth on medium tyres.
But in the end only Mercedes drivers Hamilton and Bottas, Verstappen in Red Bull and Gasly in AlphaTauri managed to pass in Q3 on medium tyres while Perez dropped out and finished 11th fastest.
Giovinazzi in Alfa Romeo, Tsunoda in AlphaTauri, who couldn’t make into Q3 on mediums, Raikkonen in Alfa Romeo and Russell in Williams also finished their performance in Q2.
The first race of the season is scheduled for Sunday at 19:00 local time.
2021 BAHRAIN GP STARTING GRID
1 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull/Honda | 1:28.997 | – |
2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:29.385 | 0.388 |
3 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:29.586 | 0.589 |
4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:29.678 | 0.681 |
5 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri/Honda | 1:29.809 | 0.812 |
6 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren/Mercedes | 1:29.927 | 0.930 |
7 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren/Mercedes | 1:29.974 | 0.977 |
8 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Ferrari | 1:30.215 | 1.218 |
9 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine/Renault | 1:30.249 | 1.252 |
10 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin/Mercedes | 1:30.601 | 1.604 |
11 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Red Bull/Honda | 1:30.659 | 1.662 |
12 | 99 | A.Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo/Ferrari | 1:30.708 | 1.711 |
13 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri/Honda | 1:31.203 | 2.206 |
14 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo/Ferrari | 1:31.238 | 2.241 |
15 | 63 | George Russell | Williams/Mercedes | 1:33.430 | 4.433 |
16 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine/Renault | 1:31.724 | 2.727 |
17 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams/Mercedes | 1:31.936 | 2.939 |
18 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin/Mercedes | 1:32.056 | 3.059 |
19 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas/Ferrari | 1:32.449 | 3.452 |
20 | 9 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas/Ferrari | 1:33.273 | 4.276 |
2021 BAHRAIN GP TIMETABLE
1st free practice | Fri 14:30 |
2nd free practice | Fri 18:00 |
3rd free practice | Sat 15:00 |
Qualifying | Sat 18:00 |
Race | Sun 18:10 |