The defending champion Max Verstappen lead a Red Bull Racing 1-2 in qualifying for Formula 1’s 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix season opener, with Charles Leclerc third but unexpectedly missing the final Q3 fliers.
Carlos Sainz finished in fourth position ahead of two-time champion Fernando Alonso, the Aston Martin driver only running once in the final segment due to having one set fewer of the soft tyres compared to the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers.
Verstappen had led Leclerc after the first runs in Q3 by 0.103 seconds, but just as the action was due to reach qualifying’s climax, the latter was suddenly climbing from his Ferrari and was shuffled down to third by Perez’s final lap improvement.
Ahead, Verstappen had already gone even quicker on his second run to post a one minute, 29.708 seconds, which meant he ended up clear of his team-mate by 0.138 seconds and Leclerc by 0.292 seconds.
Sainz was able to make a second Q3 flier and set a personal best, but ended up fourth behind his team-mate.
Then came Alonso and George Russell, who led his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in sixth and seventh, the duos also completing just a single run in Q3.
Lance Stroll did likewise, albeit running shortly after Alonso and he took eighth while running with his injured right wrist.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon took ninth ahead of new Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg, who marked his first time back in qualifying as a full-time Formula 1 driver since 2019 by making Q3 where he lost a time for going too far beyond track limits at Turn 4, but set an even quicker time on his way to taking 10th.
In Q2, Stroll’s last-gasp improvement to sneak through in tenth knocked out McLaren’s Lando Norris, who himself had only just progressed from Q1.
All of the drivers eliminated in Q2 set personal bests on their final runs but were shuffled back, bar Yuki Tsunoda, whose best effort for AlphaTauri just cemented his place in P14.
Alex Albon also did not improve on his final lap for Williams, which was set offset from the rest and with four minutes of Q2 remaining.
Running solo, Albon ended up abandoning the lap after appearing to understeer off and beyond the heavily scrutinised Turn 4 track limit, after which he also went off cutting behind the Turn 7 fast left and so toured back to the pits still in P15.
Alfa Romeo pair Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were the other drivers eliminated in the middle segment.
Before that, Q1 had barely begun when it was red-flagged after Leclerc lost two pieces of his front wheel fairing running down the pit straight ahead of his first run on the mediums.
The first part flew off shortly after he opened his DRS and then when he braked and locked up – likely as a result of the missing aero piece – a second, larger piece fell off the underside of the Ferrari and came to rest on the track, after which race control opted to stop the session so the pieces could be recovered.
When the action restarted after an eight-minute delay, Leclerc returned to the action after Ferrari repaired his car and he went through with the third quickest time behind Sainz and Russell.
With a significant track evolution factor, all the drivers bar Sainz were running when the opening segment concluded, with Kevin Magnussen completing his final lap with a personal best head of the chequered flag emerging but being shuffled down as others improved later and the Dane was out in P17.
That was initially where Pierre Gasly finished his first qualifying for Alpine, but running too far beyond track limits on his final out of the final corner meant he was dropped to the rear of the field.
That elevated Nyck de Vries one spot on his regular Formula 1 appearance, the AlphaTauri driver finishing behind Oscar Piastri, who could not escape the drop zone having languished there with Norris after they had completed their Q1 banker laps on used softs as their first runs on new ones had been ruined by the red flag.
Norris only squeaked through into Q2 as the final 2023 rookie, Logan Sargeant, set an identical time on the final lap of Q1 and so was dumped out in P16 per the rule that means a driver that set a time first is placed ahead if a rival subsequently matches their effort exactly.
So congratulations to Max Verstappen in earning his 21st career pole position in Formula 1. Sergio Perez lines up alongside his Red Bull teammate and the team are looking good for the race especially pre-season testing form as the RB19 is still a quick car. Can anyone challenge the champions? Bring on the race.
Bahrain Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:29.708
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:29.846
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:30.000
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:30.154
5 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:30.336
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:30.340
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:30.384
8 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:30.836
9 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:30.984
10 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:31.055
11 Lando Norris McLaren 1:31.381
12 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:31.443
13 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:31.473
14 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:32.510
15 Alexander Albon Williams No time
16 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:31.652
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:31.892
18 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:32.101
19 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri 1:32.121
20 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:32.181
Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying review as reported by Formula1.com.
Max Verstappen claimed pole position for the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix during an intense, hotly contested qualifying session under the Sakhir lights on Saturday night, beating Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez to top spot.
Verstappen pumped in a time of 1m 29.897s on his first Q3 run before improving to a 1m 29.708s the next time around, eclipsing Perez by 0.138s and netting a 21st career pole position in the process.
Ferrari locked out the second row of the grid, with Charles Leclerc ahead of Carlos Sainz despite the Monegasque not completing a second run in the pole position shootout – seemingly saving a set of tyres for race day.
Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin’s charge continued with a strong run to fifth, slotting ahead of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, as Mercedes found themselves unable to join in the fight for pole.
After missing pre-season testing due to wrist injuries sustained in a training accident, Lance Stroll battled his way eighth, in front of Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and impressive F1 returnee Nico Hulkenberg (Haas).
Lando Norris missed a Q3 spot by a couple of tenths as McLaren continued to recover from a tricky pre-season, putting his MCL60 11th on the grid, ahead of Alfa Romeo pair Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.
Yuki Tsunoda was the lead AlphaTauri driver in 14th position, with Alex Albon getting his Williams into Q2 – albeit abandoning his sole flying lap and therefore ending the second phase without a time.
F1 rookie Logan Sargeant almost joined team mate Albon in Q2 at the first time of asking, setting an identical time to 15th-placed Norris towards the end of Q1, but the American dropped out due to his time being posted later.
Sargeant still did enough to put his Williams a respectable 16th on the grid, ahead of Kevin Magnussen – who could not live with the pace of high-flying team mate Hulkenberg – and fellow 2023 newcomers Oscar Piastri and Nyck de Vries.
A big shock in Q1 saw Pierre Gasly eliminated in P20 during his first qualifying session with new team Alpine, meaning the Frenchman will line up at the very back of the grid on Sunday – Gasly having had a lap time deleted.
Q1 – Ferrari lead the way despite early drama
After a busy winter of developments, an intriguing pre-season test and an even more fascinating first day of practice, the time for pecking order predictions stopped as the sun set and the floodlights illuminated the Sakhir circuit on Saturday night.
Ferrari were quick to send their drivers out on medium tyres, only for Leclerc to suffer a huge lock-up into Turn 1 as parts of his car – later confirmed to be from the wheel front-right wheel brow – flew off, signalling an early red flag as debris sat on the circuit.
When the action resumed, it was Sainz who rose to the top of the timesheets by clocking a 1m 30.993s amid a frantic sequence of laps, with Russell a surprise second, Leclerc up in third and practice pace-setter Alonso fourth – the Red Bulls only P5 and P6.
Stroll was under pressure for the second runs – having lost an early time due to exceeding track limits – but the Canadian and his recovering wrists ultimately cruised through to Q2 in fifth, as the top four positions remained unchanged.
Hulkenberg popped up to sixth position with a late improvement, displacing Verstappen’s Red Bull, while Tsunoda and Albon impressively put their AlphaTauri and Williams machines ahead of the other RB19 piloted by Perez.
Alfa Romeo pair Bottas and Zhou progressed to Q2 in 11th and 14th respectively, sandwiching Alpine’s Ocon and Mercedes’ Hamilton, with Norris the final driver to jump over the first qualifying hurdle in P15.
All three of F1’s rookies dropped out in Q1: Sargeant falling agonisingly short of a Q2 spot in 16th, Piastri placing 18th and De Vries winding up 19th. Magnussen and Gasly endured tricky sessions en route to P17 and P20 respectively.
Knocked out: Sargeant, Magnussen, Piastri, De Vries, Gasly
Q2 – Red Bull begin to show their hand
Red Bull appeared to turn up the wick when the action got back under way for Q2 –Verstappen storming to P1 with a 1m 30.503s on his first flyer, putting him 0.243s clear of team mate Perez and a further chunk clear of the chasing pack.
However, the second sequence of runs brought another extremely busy spell and ended with Leclerc leading the way on a 1m 30.282s, some two-tenths quicker than the initial benchmark posted by Verstappen.
Mercedes stayed in the mix as Russell and Hamilton slotted into respective P3 and P4 positions, followed by the other Ferrari of Sainz, the green Aston Martin machine of Alonso and Perez’s Red Bull.
Hulkenberg continued to catch the eye on his F1 comeback with a lap good enough for eighth, as Ocon and Stroll secured the final Q3 spots – the latter earning cheers from the Aston Martin garage for his efforts.
Norris just missed the cut in 11th, as the Alfa Romeos of Bottas and Zhou, Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri and Albon’s Williams joined him in the drop zone – Albon going off track at the Turn 5/6/7 esses and backing out of his only Q2 lap.
Knocked out: Norris, Bottas, Zhou, Tsunoda, Albon
Q3 – Verstappen puts both hands on pole position
Building on his Q2 showing, Verstappen delivered a rapid 1m 29.897s in the early minutes of Q3 to slot ahead of Leclerc, Perez and Sainz – this group all having two sets of soft tyres at their disposal.
Alonso was one driver who only had one set of softs to play with and used his single lap to provisionally go fourth, as attentions then turned to the second runs from the aforementioned front-running group.
Before this played out, cameras cut to Leclerc hopping out of his Ferrari, sparking concerns of reliability issues, but last year’s championship runner-up would confirm post-qualifying that he and the team opted to bank some fresh tyres for race day.
Back on track, Verstappen clocked a blistering 1m 29.708s to strengthen his grip on pole, with Perez also improving to finish 0.138s adrift, followed by Ferrari pair Leclerc and Sainz.
Alonso settled for fifth in what still represented a stellar result for himself and Aston Martin, in front of Russell and Hamilton’s Mercedes cars, team mate Stroll, Ocon and Hulkenberg.
Charles Leclerc reveals reason for late Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix Q3 absence. Motorsport.com provides the full story.
Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc did not contest the climax to qualifying in order to save an extra set of soft tyres for the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Leclerc jumped out of his SF-23 after posting his banker lap in Q3 to forfeit his shot at pole position, with the driver settling for third place by lapping 0.292s adrift of Max Verstappen and behind the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez.
While this led to some speculation that he might have encountered a technical issue – with the Monegasque triggering a red flag in Q1 when his car twice shed bodywork – the driver and his team have relayed that this was a deliberate strategy to better attack the race.
Leclerc confirmed there was no fault with his car but in recognising Ferrari is on the “backfoot” compared to Red Bull’s race pace, they had opted to carry over a set of Pirellis for the race.
He said: “No, there wasn’t any issue. I think we were in a fight for pole, which was a good surprise, to be honest.
“I did not expect that after testing and after the free practices that were a little bit difficult. We managed to find that pace for the quali lap, which was great.
“However, we need to keep in our mind that in the race run, we seem to be a little bit on the backfoot compared to Red Bull.
“I think we are in a better place starting third with new tyres than starting first with old or a bit further up.
“I don’t know if we would have gotten pole or not. But it would have been close.”
Leclerc was nevertheless buoyed by his turn of pace on Saturday, admitting that he had not expected Ferrari to be as close to Red Bull based on his discontent during testing, when he was deliberately sent out to chase understeer-biased set-ups, and during practice.
“We are much closer than what we expected, which is looking good for the future,” said Leclerc.
“I think it makes Formula 1 more exciting. So, I’m looking forward to the rest of the races.
“We seem to have a bit of a weakness for now. Having a new tyre will help us tomorrow. “But I don’t know how much the picture will change with that, but it’s going into in the right direction at least.”
World champion Max Verstappen was left feeling “positively surprised” by pole position as Red Bull warns of better race pace. Motorsport.com has the news story.
Max Verstappen was “positively surprised” to have landed pole for the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix as Red Bull warned Formula 1 rivals that its race pace will be even stronger.
After Red Bull appeared to be the strongest team by some margin during pre-season testing last week, Verstappen had to persevere with more understeer during Friday practice as a result of Red Bull electing to raise the ride height of its RB19.
That left team-mate Sergio Perez – more comfortable with a lazy front axle – to top FP1 before Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso ran fastest in FP2 and FP3.
But then two-time world champion Verstappen stormed to his 21st F1 pole position by 0.138s over Perez.
Charles Leclerc, who missed the final shootout as part of a deliberate move to carry over an extra set of soft tyres for the race, led an all-Ferrari second row ahead of Alonso in fifth.
The Dutch racer said: “I was actually positively surprised being on pole after the struggles I had in practice. So that’s positive and, normally, our race car is better. I think it’s been a bit of a tough start to the weekend yesterday and today.
“Not really finding my rhythm. But luckily, in qualifying, I think we managed to put the best pieces together.
“Compared to last year, I think everyone knows a bit more what they’re doing with the car. So naturally, I think you already start off better and more competitive.
“The changes I think slowed down the car a bit, but we are still going faster.
“So that’s, of course, a great thing to see. I think again, throughout the year, you will see that everyone is increasing their performance again a lot.”
The top seven cars were split by under 0.7s in Q3 while less than 1.2s spanned the entire field in Q1.
Perez, who was still not entirely happy with the RB19’s balance, reckoned he could not recall a tighter qualifying session.
However, he warned rivals that Red Bull still had the capacity to pull clear in the grand prix as a result of the team being much better prepared for the race and having compromised car set-up for qualifying.
The Mexican said: “I wasn’t totally comfortable with the balance. I believe certainly, you can always improve a tenth on your lap.
“But I think to get this start for the team is really special.
“If anything, we prepared much more to the race. We have more of a Sunday race car at the moment underneath us. We knew we had to do some compromises for quali, which we ended up doing.
“They were not ideal. But hopefully tomorrow it pays out and we can have a very strong race.”
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso eyeing podium after “amazing” Bahrain Formula 1 qualifying. Motorsport.com provides the details.
Fernando Alonso thinks he has a chance to fight for the podium in Formula 1’s Bahrain Grand Prix after being buoyed by his “amazing” fifth place in qualifying which “felt too good to be true.”
Alonso and his Aston Martin team were the talk of the paddock after topping for FP2 and FP3, with the expectation that the Silverstone team could at least challenge Mercedes to enter the top three.
The two-time world champion did exactly that in qualifying, taking fifth place behind the four cars from Red Bull and Ferrari and narrowly ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
When Motorsport.com asked him if Aston Martin’s strong tyre management and race pace means Alonso could take aim at the Ferraris and go for a podium, the Spaniard said it was possible, even if it “felt too good to be true” to even be thinking about it.
“Let’s see, yes. I’m laughing because going for a podium in race one… it feels too good to be true,” Alonso grinned.
“But for sure, what we saw so far on our car, and also historically Aston Martin has a very good tyre management. So yeah, if we have an opportunity for sure, we will take it.”
Amid the hype around the AMR23’s performance, this weekend’s free practice sessions continued providing evidence that the team built an impressive car but Alonso admitted that fighting with Ferrari and Mercedes “seems a little bit unreal”.
“In practice we knew that we were around third or fifth or fourth,” the 41-year-old explained.
“It was amazing. The whole weekend has been unreal for us. It was like too good to be true every session and every performance of the car.
“And then in qualifying, our expectation was to be around half a second was from Red Bull, so it was quite right.”
Alonso said the team thought Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes would prove “untouchable” in 2023 and was quietly just hoping to attack the front of the midfield.
“Again, it feels so strange for me to say that we start P5 and maybe we are aiming for more,” he added.
“Because we thought to be honest that the first three teams were untouchable this year with the advantage they had last year, and maybe we try to lead the midfield mix.
“But now we’re saying that we start P5 and maybe we fight with the Ferraris for the podium, so this is just incredible.
“So yeah, let’s keep working, keep the feet in the ground and execute the race the best way possible.
“No mistakes. Good start good stops. And let’s see where we are. But so far, we are living our dream.”