Rosanna Tennant
5 Live F1 reporter

When we saw Charles getting out of the car prematurely we all thought had they made a boo-boo here and are we going to see strategy problems in 2023.

Charles said to me after the qualifying session that he was happy with the decision that they made and I think you have to be quite bold and stand by your decisions. Here in Bahrain the track is very abrasive so tyre degradation will be quite important.

So I guess that's why they chose to do that and well have to wait and see where they stack up at the end but Charles seems quite confident in his new boss, who he was worked with twice as well.

Image source, Pirelli Motorsport Twitter

These are the tyres drivers have left to work with for today's first race in Bahrain.

Ferrari skipped the final run in Q3 to save a new set of the C3 compounds for Charles Leclerc.

The Monegasque man is the only driver in the top 10 with fresh red rubber on hand for lights out.

Sam Bird
Formula E driver on BBC Radio 5 Live

I think that the strategies that implemented yesterday at Ferrari were strong. Rewind 12 months and they would have made mistakes. They sent the cars out in Q1 on a medium compound set of tyres but immediately switched to softs. They realised that they had to get through to Q2. I think last year they wouldn't have done that.

Then in Q3 obviously saving a set of tyres, they understand their car is harder on the tyres and needed a fresh set for the start of a race.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, speaking to Sky Sports: "As we said at the beginning of the year, our objective is to fight for the World Championship and win it.

"Having said that, this first race of the season, It will be difficult. I feel we're on the backfoot. That is why we kept one new [set of] soft. It was the best thing to do in our situation, whether its enough to keep up with Red Bull, I don't know.

"Everyone has been saying we have been sandbagging. We have been under the radar but not in the way we wanted. There's a lot of potential in the car, we just need to unlock it."

Image source, Getty Images

We saw Charles Leclerc get out of the car towards the end of qualifying and not take part in the final battle to secure pole position, leaving fans to question whether the SF-23 had experienced some technical problems.

Leclerc, who lines up in third place today, said the decision to end his session early was based on the knowledge that their tyre wear was not as good as that of their rivals.

"There wasn't any [technical] issue," he said. "I think we were in the fight for pole, which was a good surprise after the testing and practices, which were a bit more difficult.

"However, we have to keep in mind that we have been struggling a bit on the long run and I think we are in a better place to start on new tyres.

"It was very close. Aston Martin were very quick, Mercedes were very quick at some times. We are a lot closer than we expected. In the race run, we seem to have bit of a weakness for now. Having a set of new tyres will help us."

Jack Nicholls
BBC Radio 5 Live F1 commentator

Nothing changes in that Max Verstappen is the over-whelming favourite?

There was concern that it could be a whitewash of a season and I think the optimism it that it isn't going got be quite as dominant.

Charles Leclerc was only a tenth of a second behind Max Verstappen behind their qualifying runs but Leclerc decided not to do another run and keep fresh his tyres for the start of today, so there is optimism and Max is still the favourite and you'd find someone really brave to say they're not backing Verstappen for the win today.

It's a long season to come and early races are always a little bit of an unknown.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain

Image source, Getty Images

What to expect from the first race of the season? The Red Bulls look very hard to beat. Max Verstappen might have said he was “surprised” to be on pole after their struggles to find a balance in practice, but no-one else was to see him there. And the Red Bull looks formidable on a long run.

The battle, on the balance of evidence so far, is likely to be behind him. Ferrari are so concerned about their tyre usage that Charles Leclerc eschewed a final qualifying run to save a set of new soft tyres for the start of the race. But he admitted this was “unlikely to be a game-changer” and Mercedes, with their lack of rear downforce, believe they may be in the same boat - Lewis Hamilton is expecting them to have lost their one biggest strength of last year, which was good race tyre life.

As a result, many people’s tip for the final podium spot is Fernando Alonso. As George Russell, whose Mercedes starts alongside the Spaniard on row three, put it: “Fernando is probably more of a dark horse than Ferrari.”

The Aston Martin has looked very strong on race runs. The team are famous for strong tyre life. And Alonso is as good a racer - and race manager - as there is. I’m laughing because going for a podium in race one… it feels too good to be true,” Alonso said. “For sure from what we saw so far on our car and also historically, Aston Martin has very good tyre management.”

Image source, Getty Images

There's no better feeling for a team than seeing both drivers occupy the top two seats at the table.

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez claimed Red Bull's 26th one-two result in qualifying on Saturday.

For Mexican driver Perez, who finished third in last year's drivers' championship, yesterday's session was a competitive fight to start the season with.

"It was a really tight qualifying. I don't remember such a tight qualifying battle from Q1, Q2," said Perez. "You can not leave anything on the table to maximise your grid position."

Perez said he "wasn't totally comfortable with the balance" of the RB19 but added Red Bull were looking at more of a race set-up during qualifying.

"We have more of a Sunday race car underneath us," he said. "We knew we had to do some compromises for qualifying, which we ended up doing and which were not ideal but hopefully [Sunday] we can have a very strong race car."

The opening two days in Bahrain haven't been all smooth sailing for Max Verstappen and Red Bull, with the two-time world champion saying he was "positively surprised" at being on pole after struggling in practice.

He added: "It's been a bit of a tough start to the weekend and today not finding my rhythm. But in qualifying we managed to put the best pieces together and of course very happy to be on pole."

Image source, Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton has a wry smile on his face in the background as Fernando Alonso gives his pre-race interview during the driver parade.

Mercedes team-mate George Russell is parked between the two former McLaren racers for today's grand prix.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

World champion Max Verstappen picked up where he left off in Abu Dhabi last season by claiming pole position for today's Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Dutchman secured his 21st front-row spot with a time of 1:29.708 in the top 10 shootout but has never celebrated a victory at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Verstappen did put his Red Bull on pole in 2021 but lost out to Lewis Hamilton for the race win when he overtook the Mercedes man off the track and had to hand the position back with four laps to go.

Image source, Formula 1 Twitter

Pierre Gasly's first race with new team Alpine begins with the tough task of moving through the field from the back of the grid. The Frenchman was knocked out in Q1 and had a lap time deleted.

Nico Hulkenberg starts in the top 10 after placing his Haas into Q3 on his F1 return, while Lewis Hamilton and George Russell find themselves stuck behind the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso in P6 and P7.

The first F1 Sunday of the new campaign is here. Welcome in everybody.

There is a familiar look to the front two slots on the grid today after Saturday's qualifying session.

Some drivers were surprised to be in the mix, while others conceded there is still work to be done behind the scenes.

Round one in Bahrain - the start of a 23-race calendar - gets under way at 15:00 GMT.

Full radio commentary will be available to listen to from 14:45 GMT on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, the BBC Sounds app and at the top of this page using the audio icon.

Image source, Getty Images

How do you stop two raging bulls in the desert with a front-row advantage?

That's the question two prancing horses, a Spanish veteran and the rest of the grid have to find the answer to at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The 2023 season opener is about to go green...

Image source, Getty Images