Image source, Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton, who starts from ninth today: "I wasn't comfortable with my race pace [during practice] so I changed the car to hopefully make the race pace better, but we'll see 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 [in qualifying].

"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."

Charles Leclerc, after finishing second in qualifying yesterday: "I am a bit disappointed. 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 how the race pace goes.

"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 will see."

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Max Verstappen, who starts on pole after topping qualifying yesterday: "It was a lot of fun. 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 [in qualifying].

"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."

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain

The Bahrain Grand Prix is the toughest track on tyres on the calendar and the race is expected to be played out mainly on the hard tyre, over probably two stops. Unsurprisingly, Max Verstappen and Red Bull are in a slightly different position - they have saved a new set of soft tyres for the race, and that is likely to give them a formidable advantage. A new soft over a used soft is worth 0.3secs a lap for the first 10 laps of a stint.

Will they deploy it at the start, or save it for later? Rivals suspect the latter. So it may be two softs and a hard for Verstappen and two hards and a soft for the rest.

The medium is not a good tyre, on the open-gauge asphalt so is unlikely to feature heavily.

A pit stop costs about 24 seconds, or 11 seconds or so under safety car. DRS - which will be available after just one lap this year for the first time - gives a driver an extra 0.6secs a lap. So may help Verstappen’s immediate pursuer hang on for a while before their tyres start to wear.

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Christian Horner was pictured arriving in the paddock earlier today with his wife Geri.

Max Verstappen has given qualified support to Christian Horner as Red Bull team boss after setting pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Horner has again denied allegations of inappropriate behaviour after a series of alleged messages were leaked.

Verstappen was asked whether he had full faith in Horner's leadership of Red Bull.

He said: "From the performance side of things, you can't even question that. So that's what I'm also dealing with."

Want to catch up on what's new for 2024?

BBC Sport's Ritchie Blackman explains everything you need to know about the new season.

The Bahrain and next week's Saudi Arabian races take place on a Saturday to accommodate the start of the Islamic holy month Ramadan from Sunday, 10 March.

This date was originally scheduled to be the Saudi Arabian GP, so Formula 1 brought the race forward by a day to avoid a clash.

F1 rules state there must be a week between races, so the event in Sakhir will also start on Thursday to give teams enough time to prepare.

Radio commentary of the Bahrain GP will be live on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sounds, plus the BBC Sport website and app.

You can also listen and download the Chequered Flag podcast , which previews and reviews every race of the season, and F1: Back at Base, a podcast which goes behind the scenes at Mercedes and Williams, via BBC Sounds.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain

Image source, Getty Images

The sun is setting in Bahrain, the strong winds of qualifying have died down and a new Formula 1 season is about to get under way. Max Verstappen heads into this race as hot favourite, but his and Red Bull’s advantage over the field is less than many feared, and Charles Leclerc could maybe have beaten Verstappen to pole had he repeated his lap in second qualifying when it mattered.

That being said, no one expects to be able to beat Verstappen today, the only hope that he has a bad start and falls back into the pack, or hits problems.

Behind him, the battle between Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin and McLaren looks intense. And many in those teams are wary of Fernando Alonso, who is something of a Bahrain specialist and last year used his tyre management wizardry to move up from seventh on the first lap to a podium finish, helped by Leclerc’s retirement. But the battle is hard to call.

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It is early days - in fact pretty much one of the earliest days we can have into a new season - but the signs already seem ominous that this could be another season of dominance from Max Verstappen.

The Red Bull driver starts the season opener in Bahrain today on pole after a blowing away his rivals in qualifying.

Will there be more of the same today?