Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain

From 0.7secs behind in Melbourne, to 0.3secs ahead in Bahrain, Ferrari have fixed the problems they suffered in Albert Park - and added some massive engine boost. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen said he thought “everyone was surprised” by how quick the Ferrari was on the straights.

That straight-line speed is what gave them their advantage over the Mercedes, which had a slight edge in the corners. But as Valtteri Bottas said after qualifying: “The question is how much power they can run in the race and for how many laps in a row. Race pace looked good in practice. I had a pretty strong run on the soft tyre.”

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Sebastian Vettel has just been asked if he and Charles Leclerc will be allowed to race. "Yes," is Vettel's reply.

We will see.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen will start from fifth on the grid.

He says improvements need to be made.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain

Image source, Getty Images

Max Verstappen was twice as far behind pole on Saturday as the fastest Red Bull was in Bahrain last year - 0.8secs off rather than just under 0.4secs - and Pierre Gasly did not get out of second qualifying.

“Of course we are not happy with where we are,” Verstappen said, "but in a way I was pleased to be fifth because at the beginning of qualifying we were struggling quite bit with balance to so to still put it on fifth is a good achievement.

"If you don’t have a good balance, it is always going to be tricky. We just have to look at ourselves. If we can say we have done the best job possible out of our car you maybe are surprised but at the moment I’m not surprised.”

Verstappen said that his balance had been unpredictable through the weekend but that his main problem in qualifying was a snappy rear - which was also what was affecting Gasly, who starts 13th. “At the moment it just feels like I can't really drive how I want. As I say, it's quite unpredictable. Sometimes I turn, nothing happens, next corner I will turn, I will lose the rear.”

A snappy rear is not what you need when you’re trying to protect tyres on a track where rear grip is key. Red Bull have clearly not, as both drivers said, found what they call “the sweet spot” with their car.

Warm, but windy...

Bahrain in March. A nice place to get to if you've got the money. And the celebrities are out in force already. Football legend David Beckham and horse racing superstar Frankie Dettori are among those enjoying the sun.

Peter: I'm calling for Leclerc to have a different slower strategy than Vettel and will be behind after the pit stops.

Ged Ashton: I think Ferrari will ploy team orders telling Leclerc to let Vettel through.

Tris: The best thing that can happen for this race is Hamilton to split the Ferraris at the start.

Could Valtteri Bottas make it two from two even from the second row?

The Mercedes driver qualified in third

That all means we should start off today just like this.

Image source, .

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain

Image source, Getty Images

The Haas drivers should have started sixth and eighth, with Kevin Magnussen ahead of Romain Grosjean, but the Franco-Swiss has a three-place grid penalty for impeding McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Grosjean’s reputation means it would be easy to blame him for the incident - he was sitting on the line at the last corner, preparing a quick lap, as Norris arrived on a flying lap - but Norris defended him, and blamed Sebastian Vettel for a breach of etiquette:

“To be fair to him (Grosjean), he only had three seconds for his team to tell him I was behind if they didn't already. It would have been very hard for him if he didn’t know to suddenly change his whole approach and giving up his whole lap. From what he said he didn't know I was behind until I was pretty much about to crash into him.

"Vettel screwed him over, which is not a very nice thing to do in terms of us being racers, we try to respect each other. If you've got a car ahead you don't just overtake them into the final corner like (Kevin) Magnussen and Fernando (Alonso) last year in Monza because you kind of screw both your qualifying laps. I think he did what he could when he knew. But he did impede me.”

Grosjean said: “When you drive that slow and other cars are on a flying lap. It’s just carnage. It's probably something we need to look at in the future because it's been raised in the past. It's Vettel that made a mess here, he didn't really respect the unwritten rule that you don't overtake before the last corner. He passed the queue, came in front of me, so that gave me another three or four seconds to wait. We had not accounted for the fact that Vettel would do that. Therefore we thought we were clear of Norris. That's probably why they didn't tell me that Norris was on a flying lap.”

After qualifying yesterday there was bad news for Haas and Romain Grosjean, as the Frenchman was given a three-place grid penalty for getting in the way of Lando Norris during qualifying. It means Grosjean drops down from eighth to 11th, with Kimi Raikkonen up to eighth, Norris up to ninth and Daniel Ricciardo to 10th.

So Charles Leclerc is on pole, which, frankly is great news for Formula 1.

However, in Australia only two weeks ago we saw that he was very much the number two at Ferrari. He was fifth, with team-mate Sebastian Vettel in fourth late on and Leclerc asked his team if he could attack Vettel, but got the disappointing reply to hold his position.

So, our debate today is: Will Leclerc be allowed to win this race or will Ferrari bring in team orders? Also, what do you think and expect will happen today?

You know the drill, tweet us using the hashtag #bbcf1 and we will stick in your words of wisdom.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain

The boy's a bit special. Charles Leclerc has taken his first pole position in his second race for Ferrari, and in only his 23rd race. This evening in Bahrain, he has the chance to take his first win. Can anyone stop him? Ferrari have been the pace-setters all weekend, and Leclerc has looked the man most likely from the start of practice.

But the Mercedes is closer on race pace, and Sebastian Vettel, very well aware of what’s at stake in the internal dynamics at Ferrari, will not want to take this lying down. Ferrari say Leclerc is allowed to win, but that “it is important is our two drivers are not fighting and taking any risk when battling together”. This race is a fascinating prospect.

Leclerc became the second youngest pole-sitter in F1 after setting the fastest time on Saturday.

After qualifying he dedicated his pole position to his father Herve, former F1 driver Jules Bianchi and F1 race director Charlie Whiting, who died earlier this month.

Herve died in June 2017 and Bianchi, a close friend of Leclerc's, died in June 2015.

Image source, Getty Images

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc beat team-mate Sebastian Vettel to take his maiden pole position at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Monegasque, 21, beat the four-time world champion by 0.294 seconds as Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas took third and fourth for Mercedes.

Leclerc was fastest in all three parts of qualifying, a powerful statement of intent. Hamilton was 0.324secs behind, pipping Bottas by just 0.66secs.

Leclerc said: "I am truly happy. In the last race I was not satisfied with my qualifying and I worked really hard to do better.

"Seb is an amazing driver and I have learned a lot from him and I will learn from him all year. But today is a good day for me."

Vettel, who had only one run in final qualifying, said: "Charles did a very good job today and he deserves to be on pole. I felt happy with my only run and we are in a good place for the race."

First up, a quick look back at what happened yesterday.

Hello! Welcome along to BBC Sport's live text commentary from the second race of the Formula 1 season.

I'm Michael Emons and I will be talking you through all the action today and we will also have live radio commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra later on.

What a day Saturday was for Charles Leclerc.

He produced a stunning performance to become the second youngest man ever to get on pole position, so can he go from the front and win the Bahrain Grand Prix?

It won't be easy as his team-mate Sebastian Vettel is alongside him on the front row and behind are the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

Basically, it's all set up to be an absolutely brilliant race.

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