Max Verstappen continued his dominance of the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix weekend as he swept to pole for opening race of the new season.
Verstappen picked up where he finished off on Friday with a strong performance throughout Saturday, as he claimed pole position ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
There however were plenty of surprise results throughout Saturday’s action, so here is a roundup of FP3 and each section of Qualifying.
FP3
A quiet start to the session saw AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda head out for only an installation lap, as several drivers waited for track temperatures to dip with Valtteri Bottas second to venture out but saw multiple lap times deleted for exceeding track limits.
Lewis Hamilton eventually set the early pace with a 1m 32.933 ahead of Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz, until Verstappen posted a 1m 32.617 to go quickest at the halfway mark of this session ahead of Hamilton with Pierre Gasly going third fastest.
Gasly soon afterwards went top briefly on his soft qualifying simulation with a 1m 32.321 but his effort was quickly bettered by several drivers, including Hamilton who posted a 1m 31.316 to go top.
Verstappen was amongst a handful who left his late short-fuel flier until the closing stages, with the Dutch driver eventually posting a session topping 1m 30.577.
The order heading into Qualifying after FP3 therefore saw Verstappen quickest from Hamilton and Gasly who had posted a quicker effort on a second short-fuel flier.
Bottas was fourth quickest ahead of Sergio Perez, Sainz, Kimi Raikkonen, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and Daniel Ricciardo, as the Aussie rounded out the top ten ahead of Charles Leclerc.
Sainz and Leclerc however set their best lap times of this session on medium tyres for Ferrari, with Leclerc escaping an early slide at Turn Two where Raikkonen had crashed in FP2 yesterday.
Sebastian Vettel meanwhile survived a freak incident in which a part of his Aston Martin came loose and hit his helmet in the face, before blowing away from the track, with the German escaping without injury as he returned to the pits.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 30.577 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.739 |
| 3 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | + 1.006 |
| 4 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | + 1.278 |
| 5 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 1.331 |
| 6 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 1.531 |
| 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | + 1.647 |
| 8 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.846 |
| 9 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.854 |
| 10 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 1.900 |
| 11 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 1.905 |
| 12 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | + 1.923 |
| 13 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 2.132 |
| 14 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 2.178 |
| 15 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | + 2.243 |
| 16 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 2.283 |
| 17 | George Russell | Williams | + 2.746 |
| 18 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 2.845 |
| 19 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | + 3.045 |
| 20 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 3.382 |
Qualifying
Q1
Both Williams and Haas cars were first out on track with the former’s two drivers pitting at end of their first flier, whilst Mick Schumacher set the early benchmark of 1m 33.861 following Nikita Mazepin’s spin at Turn 13 after dropping the rear.
A frantic dash for early bankers soon followed amongst rest of the drivers with Verstappen eventually going quickest with a 1m 30.499 at the halfway stage, as Esteban Ocon, Nicholas Latifi, George Russell, Mazepin and Schumacher in the drop zone.
Out of those five drivers, only Russell advanced to Q2 as Ocon and Latifi qualified 16th and 17th fastest, whilst Schumacher outqualified Mazepin in 19th as Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel was a shock casualty in 18th after two yellow flags ruined his lap.
Mazepin was the driver behind the first yellow flag after suffering a second spin of the session but this time at the first corner, whilst Sainz briefly slowed at Turn Eight with a power unit related issue but was able to crawl back to the pits.
Speaking post-session on his exit, Vettel admitted that starting 18th is “disappointing” and not what the team had hoped for, despite the car feeling better after a difficult FP3.
Vettel however was demoted to back of the grid pre-race on Sunday after stewards found him guilty of failing to respect yellow flags, sending him to the back of the grid with a five-place grid penalty and three penalty points.
Q2
Several drivers opted for softs but the McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull drivers opted for mediums, which safely saw five of the six drivers through to Q3.
Perez and Ricciardo however needed to nail their second runs after their first fliers were deleted for exceeding track limits, with the Mexican ultimately falling short of qualification for Q3 as he put his Red Bull 11th on the grid but Ricciardo qualified for Q3.
A dramatic conclusion saw several drivers improve as Sainz topped the session by just 0.001s from Ferrari teammate, Charles Leclerc with Pierre Gasly briefly going third quickest.
Perez therefore was the highest-placed Q2 exit ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi, Yuki Tsunoda, Kimi Raikkonen and Russell.
Q3
Ricciardo set the early benchmark with a 1m 31.384 as both he and Lando Norris opted for used mediums on opening runs.
His time was soon usurped by several drivers as Verstappen set a provisional pole time of 1m 29.526, which was just 0.023s quicker than Hamilton’s effort as Gasly provisionally took third ahead of Bottas and Sainz.
Lance Stroll meanwhile ran in the gap and set a 1m 30.601 which eventually was only good enough for tenth after everyone else improved on their final runs.
Bottas improved on his final lap to take provisional pole until Hamilton went faster but Verstappen pulled out a 1m 28.997 to clinch his first-ever back-to-back pole positions in F1 and ended Mercedes’ run of opening race poles in the hybrid era since 2014.
Leclerc opted for just one run which put him fourth ahead of Gasly as Ricciardo, Norris, Sainz, Alonso and Stroll completed the top ten.
Speaking post-session on claiming his fourth pole in F1, Verstappen said; “It’s a great feeling to be pole and I haven’t experienced a season start like this.”
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 28.977 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.388 |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | + 0.589 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.681 |
| 5 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | + 0.812 |
| 6 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 0.930 |
| 7 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.977 |
| 8 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 1.218 |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | + 1.252 |
| 10 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.604 |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1m 30.659 |
| 12 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | + 0.049 |
| 13 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 0.544 |
| 14 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | + 0.579 |
| 15 | George Russell | Williams | + 2.771 |
| 16 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1m 31.724 |
| 17 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 0.212 |
| 18* | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 0.332 |
| 19 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 0.725 |
| 20 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | + 1.549 |
*Vettel to start last after being handed a five-place grid penalty for failing to respect yellow flags.
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