F1 qualifying: Max Verstappen takes pole in Bahrain for first race of the season
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Red Bull's Max Verstappen put in a crushing performance to set pole position for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
The world champion was 0.228 seconds quicker than Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in second. Mercedes' George Russell was third from Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton was only ninth, 0.225secs behind team-mate Russell.
Red Bull's Sergio Perez was fifth, from Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso and McLaren's Lando Norris.
Verstappen's ultimate margin was smaller than many in F1 expected it would be before the weekend - some had predicted the three-time champion would be 0.5secs clear of the field.
However, his superiority was underlined by the fact that only Leclerc managed to beat on new tyres the time Verstappen had set on used tyres in his first run in final qualifying, and even then by only 0.014secs.
Given the Red Bull's traditional performance pattern, which sees their advantage extend in races in relation to qualifying, he looks a shoe-in for a first victory of the season to continue a run of consecutive race wins that goes back to Japan in late September last year.
And his performance bodes ill for a competitive season at the front of the field, after Verstappen and Red Bull combined to produce the most dominant season in F1 history in 2023.
"It was a lot of fun," said Verstappen. "The track has a lot of grip but with the wind it has been quite tricky to get the whole lap together and it was the same today.
"To really get everything out of it in Q3 was a little bit difficult. It was a little bit unexpected but luckily in qualifying the car came to us and I felt a little bit happier with the whole car.
"We just needed to fine-tune a few things to get that perfect balance but lucky we went in the right direction and could push a little more in qualifying.
"In the race it is going be close as well. We do look good and I am confident we can have a strong race."
Behind him, though, the field looks closely matched and competitive.
Leclerc was just 0.078secs quicker than Russell, with Sainz just 0.100secs further adrift.
Leclerc felt he had the pace to get pole and had not maximised his potential in the final session.
"I am a bit disappointed," he said. "I found the sweet spot in qualifying. It is quite a good qualifying and we are in a better place than a year ago so that is good. Now we have to see the race pace goes tomorrow.
"In Q2 I did a 29.1, which was more or less the same time as Max did in Q3, but I lost a bit of the rhythm on the used tyres at the start of Q3.
"We really think Red Bull is still ahead by quite a bit in the race but we see tomorrow."
Perez came into the season under pressure from Red Bull to improve his qualifying performances, or risk losing his seat.
The Mexican did not get off to a good start, down in fifth place, with 0.358secs separating him from Verstappen on pole.
Sparks will fly this weekend under the lights at the Sakhir circuit
Norris' McLaren looked quick at various times through the session but he ended up 0.435secs from pole and just 0.069secs ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri.
The Briton was left ruing a mistake-strewn final lap, when he believed he could have been on the front row.
"I messed up sector one," he said. "I just had a little oversteer on the exit of Turn One just as I came on the throttle and it cost me 0.15secs, and today there was 0.15secs between me and P2.
"I felt I wanted to push a bit more - wrong thing to do, made another couple of mistakes in Turn Four. I would have been there or thereabouts. The car was good enough for a front row and disappointed I didn't deliver it. A bit of a shame but I will try to make up for it tomorrow."
Hamilton described his session as "poor" and said he had compromised his qualifying pace for better tyre performance in the race.
"Yesterday George and I were identical car set-ups and the car was feeling great and we veered off," Hamilton said. "He went one way and I went the other. The one I was on was not good on a single lap, I hope it is good in the race.
"I wasn't comfortable with my race pace so I changed the car to hopefully make the race pace better, but we'll see tomorrow if that's really the case. There is lots of (tyre) degradation with the rears and race pace is everything but obviously position is important too.
"The factory have finally given us a car we can fight with but I wasn't able to utilise it today. For George to be 0.3secs off Red Bull is incredible. If that's our platform from here, we can really chase through the rest of the season."
Behind Hamilton, Hulkenberg was the final driver to complete the top 10.
At the back, the biggest disappointment was in the performance of Alpine. The French team, who finished sixth overall in 2023, occupy the last row of the grid, with Esteban Ocon ahead of Pierre Gasly.
Ocon was moved to send a radio message on his return to the pits saying he "had faith" in the team.
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