Piastri takes his second Pole position of the season in Bahrain

IMAGE: AP Pic

Oscar Piastri is on Pole for the Bahrain Grand Prix - extending his dominance that he has shown this weekend so far.

His teammate Lando Norris could only manage P6 in the latter stage of qualifying which is a disappointing result for the Briton. 

P2 goes to George Russell who drove a storming lap to put his Mercedes on the front row.

Charles Leclerc settles for P3 after an impressive qualifying display putting his Ferrari well within the fight for tomorrow's race. 

Antonelli takes P4. An excellent qualifying from the teenage who continues to show his talent consistently. 

Pierre Gasly drove brilliantly to put his Alpine in P5 and gives the team a massive advantage in their hunt for their first points of the season. He will be sharin gthe third row of the grid with Lando Norris who will be very disappointed considering Mclaren's speed all weekend.

Verstappen came home in P7 after a rough qualifying for him, he will start alongside Carlos Sainz who is really starting to look comfortable in the Williams machinery.

Rounding off the top 10 was Hamilton and Tsunoda - good results for both drivers after struggles on both sides. Both however will be looking to improve tomorrow in the race.


As it happened 

The temperature out there was considerably cooler than it was in practice making it much better conditions for the drivers compared to FP3. 

Plenty of lap times being deleted for track infringements in the opening five minutes with Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda having times deleted. 

Max Verstappen's struggles from FP3 persisted in Q1. He bailed on his flying lap for the second time today and failed to set a time before returning to the pit lane stating over the radio, "there's something really wrong with the car." 

With eight minutes to go, the Mclaren's took to the track with all driver's on a new set of soft tyres. Oscar Piastri wasted no time storming to P1 but was closely followed by Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari who put himself very much in the fight. It was all to play for with Norris taking the top spot shortly after. The Papaya team were dominating with six minutes to go, still sitting 1-2 on the timesheets.

Chequered flags wave and despite his struggles at the start of the session, in true World Champion style Max Verstappen goes third fastest to make it out of Q1. 

Oliver Bearman made it to Q3 last time out in Japan but unfortunately could not find the answers today and finds himself at the back of the grid. A shock exit also for Alex Albon who had looked to be in good form all weekend in the Williams. 

Out in Q1
16. Alex Albon
17. Liam Lawson
18. Gabriel Bortoleto 
19. Lance Stroll
20. Oliver Bearman 


Jack Doohan made Q2 for the first time this season which is a great result for the Australian rookie. 

Tsunoda led the drivers out for the second part of qualifying but most were stopped half way through flying laps and no times were recorded due to an incident at Turn 3.

RED FLAG - Esteban Ocon hits the barriers at high speed near Turn 3 and is out of qualifying. Ocon has emerged from the car okay and was checked over by medics while his car was lifted from the track by marshalls. The Haas pit crew have their work cut out for them to turn the car around for tomorrow.

Q2 resumes with 11 minutes to go and its all to play for with no times being set before the incident. 

Verstappen bails on his lap again and heads back to the pits. He was on used tyres but perhaps some sort of mistake from the Dutchman? Tsunoda had still not been out on track since the restart at this point - a bumpy qualifying session for the Red Bull team. 

Chequered flag was waved and Doohan unfortunately misses out on Q3 finishing in P11 - a brilliant performance from Alpine with Gasly going P3 by the end of Q2!

Verstappen struggled in the second part of qualifying only managing P7 but still safely into the final stage. 

A big shame for Hadjar exiting in Q2 after such an impressive performance in Japan and earlier on in the weekend. 

Out in Q2
11. Jack Doohan 
12. Isack Hadjar 
13. Nico Hulkenberg
14. Fernando Alonso
15. Esteban Ocon


Q3 got underway and the Mclaren drivers and Leclerc were sitting pretty with two sets of new tyres at the start of the final part of qualifying. 

Tsunoda set the benchmark time in Q3 going 4 tenths quicker than Verstappen with a 1:31.627.

Russell, Antonelli, and Piastri all scrapping for provisional pole in Q3 with the lap times entering the 1:30s! Norris trailed the three slightly.

It was announced by race control that Hulkenberg's Q1 lap time has been deleted meaning he drops to P16. This promotes Alex Albon to P15 but he annoyingly never got to battle in Q2 due to the late decision.

Plenty of drivers having their lap times too. Both Antonelli and Hamilton had their lap times wiped from the board so close to the end of qualifying.

It was a close fight to the chequered flag but it was Piastri that took Pole with a blistering time of 1:29.841.

It's all to play for in the race tomorrow!


Still to come in Bahrain

- F3 Feature Race - lights out at 12:55 local time
- F2 Feature Race - lights out at 14:25 local time 
- F1 Bahrain Grand Prix - lights out at 18:00 local time

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Katie Shepherd 
Writer - F1 Journal