Max Verstappen fulfilled Red Bull’s pre-season promise to beat Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton for pole position at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.
Verstappen will start the race from first place on the grid after beating Hamilton in the fastest time with 0.388s on Saturday night, confirming the performance reversal between the first two F1 teams over the winter.
The battle was brewing over the three training sessions in Bahrain and it was worth the wait, as the two drivers saved their best laps until the last attempt.
Hamilton initially won Verstappen’s first Q3 attempt, but the 23-year-old reacted and took the fourth pole position of his career.
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Valtteri Bottas secured third place on the grid for Mercedes, ahead of the resurgent Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who was less than 0.1s from Bottas and will line up in fourth.
Pierre Gasly was fifth on the grid for AlphaTauri, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris’ two McLarens, who will line up in sixth and seventh.
Carlos Sainz was the fastest driver in the second qualifying session, but failed in the top ten when it mattered, leaving him in eighth place and more than half a second from teammate Leclerc.
Fernando Alonso secured ninth place on his return to Formula 1 with Alpine, ahead of Lance Stroll for Aston Martin.
Sergio Perez will start 11th on his debut for Red Bull after a bet to leave the second qualifying session on medium tires was not worth it.
F1 qualifying rules state that drivers in the top ten must start the race with the set of tires they used to set their fastest time in Q2, and Red Bull wanted to make sure that Perez was in the middle more durable for the start.
However, on his first attempt, Perez ran alongside at Curve 4, resulting in his lap time being excluded, and on his second attempt he was 0.035s from a spot in Q3.
Perez will now have a free tire selection from 11th on the grid and will start ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo in 12th, rookie Alpha Tauri Yuki Tsunoda in 13th and the most experienced driver on the grid, Kimi Raikkonen, in 15th in the second Alfa Romeo .
George Russell continued his impressive run of qualifying performances from last year, pulling his Williams from Q1 to 15th place on the grid.
Alpine’s second driver, Esteban Ocon, lost a spot in Q2 for less than a tenth of a second after a late turn by Nikita Mazepin in Q1 caused a yellow flag at Turn 1 and Sainz’s Ferrari caused a yellow flag in sector two with a stuttering engine.
That will leave Ocon 16th on the grid, ahead of Nicholas Latifi and Sebastian Vettel’s second Williams, who will start 18th for his first race with Aston Martin after also being caught by the yellow flags that forced him to retreat.
The last row will consist of two new Haas drivers, with Mick Schumacher beating teammate Mazepin for 19th place.