Leclerc scores maiden pole in Bahrain ahead of P2 Vettel to lead Ferrari rebound & front row lockout; Mercedes’ Hamilton only third fastest
After showing disappointingly pedestrian pace at Formula 1’s season opener in Australia two weeks ago, Ferrari rebounded strongly during Saturday qualifying for Round Two at the Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain. And it was their precocious first year driver Charles Leclerc who bested not only the field for his first career pole position but also his 4-time World Champion teammate, Sebastian Vettel. Under the bright lights of this night race in the affluent Persian Gulf nation it was the Monégasque Leclerc who shone the brightest, setting a new track record of 1:27.866, eclipsing Vettel’s previous record lap from last year. With Ferrari back to the form they showed in preseason testing, the Scuderia dominated all practice sessions and then locked out the front row when it really mattered. And their 21-year-old ostensible Number 2 blasted a shot across not only Mercedes’ bow but also senior stablemate Vettel’s. The braintrust at Maranello have to be feeling much better about taking the fight to Mighty Mercedes than they did a fortnight ago after their underwhelming run in Melbourne. Now it’s up to the Prancing Horses to run away from the Silver Arrows come race day tomorrow and prove that it really will be game on for the Constructors’ Title in 2019.
Mercedes were clearly second best on Saturday after dominating the debut race of the season which led to Bottas’ impressive win. Lewis Hamilton did out-qualify Bottas P3 to P4 but then he also led the field from pole at Albert Park and was outclassed by his Finnish teammate. So look for Hamilton to work very hard to best Bottas tomorrow even if Mercedes do not have the pace to challenge for the win against what looks to be a resurgent Ferrari at a track that really seems to suit their blood red cars. Red Bull had another mixed day with their new Honda engines, as Verstappen put a mighty last minute Q3 lap together to vault himself up to P5 on the grid but teammate Pierre Gasly could not get to grips with the preferred Soft Pirelli tires and bounced out of Q2 down in P13. Haas, on the other hand, showed more team consistency in their Ferrari-powered machines with Kevin Magnussen putting in a mighty Q3 lap to earn P6 on the grid and Romain Grosjean good enough for the eight fastest lap. Unfortunately for the team, however, Grosjean was handed a 3-spot grid penalty for blocking McLaren rookie Lando Norris in Q1. It was another own goal by the young American team and the Frenchman after the team failed to tighten a wheel properly on the Grosjean’s car in the Australian GP for the second year in a row. And speaking of McLaren the historic F1 team showed signs of renewed life after several seasons in the wilderness. The switch to Renault power continued to pay dividends and their two young drivers made the most of it, with the more senior Carlos Sainz taking P7 and Norris coming home tenth fastest. Finally, Kimmi Raikkonen, the oldest man on the grid at 39+, hustled his Alfa Romeo up to P9, beating out his 25-year-old teammate, Antonio Giovannazi, by a whopping seven grid positions.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Bahrain GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:28.495 | 1:28.046 | 1:27.866 | |
| 2 | 1:28.733 | 1:28.356 | 1:28.160 | |
| 3 | 1:29.262 | 1:28.578 | 1:28.190 | |
| 4 | 1:29.498 | 1:28.830 | 1:28.256 | |
| 5 | 1:29.579 | 1:29.109 | 1:28.752 | |
| 6 | 1:29.532 | 1:29.017 | 1:28.757 | |
| 7 | 1:29.528 | 1:29.055 | 1:28.813 | |
| 8 | 1:29.688 | 1:29.249 | 1:29.015 | |
| 9 | 1:29.959 | 1:29.471 | 1:29.022 | |
| 10 | 1:29.381 | 1:29.258 | 1:29.043 |
Complete qualifying results available via Forumla1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 11AM Eastern here in the States. Can Ferrari put it all together and translate their superior quali pace into victory over Mercedes at the Sakhir Circuit? And will young phenom Leclerc best his supremely accomplished veteran teammate Vettel to really spice things up in Ferrari-land? Hope to see you then find out!