Defending world champion Lewis Hamilton maintains his dominance in Formula 1 qualifying with his fourth successive pole position at the Bahrain International Circuit.
The Mercedes driver was a class of the field and achieved a superb Q2 lap that was 0.5 seconds quicker than last year’s pole set by his team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton found a tenth of a second on his only run in Q3 to secure P1 and beating Sebastian Vettel in the process.
Vettel is a major threat to the Silver Arrows and for the second time this season (just like Sepang), the Ferrari driver relegate Hamilton’s team-mate Nico Rosberg to third spot.
Rosberg, who qualified on pole for the Bahrain Grand Prix for the last two years, lost crucial time in the first sector and wasn’t able to recover, ending up 0.147 seconds slower than Vettel, but just ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.
Williams locked out row three, with Valtteri Bottas marginally quicker than team-mate Felipe Massa.
Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo qualified less than a tenth adrift in seventh place, but with a gap of over six tenths to the remainder of the top ten.
Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India recorded a superb eighth, just 0.012 seconds clear of the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz Jr, while Romain Grosjean’s Lotus completed the top ten, just 0.022 seconds further back.
Both Force Indias made it through to Q2 for the first time this season, with Sergio Perez edging out his team-mate by two tenths of a second in Q1.
But Perez just missed out on joining Hulkenberg in Q3 during a tight battle in the middle part of qualifying.
Perez looked on course to make the top ten as the session finished, but lost out Sainz Jr by just 0.063 seconds so will start in P11.
That meant the Sauber missing out in Q3 – with Felipe Nasr just 0.033 seconds slower than Perez in P12.
Marcus Ericsson made an error on his best lap so was almost three tenths further back in P13.
Despite that, Ericsson was only fractionally faster than Fernando Alonso, as McLaren-Honda made it through to Q2 for the first time this season.
Alonso qualified in P14, just ahead of the Toro Rosso of Max Verstappen, who complained of a lack of power at the start of Q2.
Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus, the Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat and Jenson Button’s McLaren-Honda joined the Manor in filing through the Q1 exit door.
A problem with Maldonado’s Mercedes power unit meant he missed the cut by just 0.024 seconds, having looked strong throughout practice.
A poor lap from Kvyat, who lost much of third practice session when he beached his RB11 in the gravel, meant the Red Bull driver will start the race in P17. His worst qualifying result so far.
Will Stevens again comfortably outpaced team-mate Roberto Merhi, as Manor qualified off the final row of the grid thanks to more technical problems for Button’s McLaren.
Button’s car, which suffered reliability dramas throughout practice, stopped exiting Turn 3 on his out-lap with a suspected electrical problem, so the 2009 world champion failed to set a time.
Qualifying standings:
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m32.571s
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m32.982s
3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m33.129s
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m33.227s
5 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m33.381s
6 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m33.744s
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m33.832s
8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m34.450s
9 Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso-Renault 1m34.462s
10 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 1m34.484s
11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m34.704s
12 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1m34.737s
13 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1m35.034s
14 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1m35.039s
15 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 1m35.103s
16 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes 1m35.677s
17 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 1m35.800s
18 Will Stevens Manor-Ferrari 1m38.713s
19 Roberto Merhi Manor-Ferrari 1m39.722s
20 Jenson Button McLaren/Honda No time
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has admitted he has taken to blame for yet another disappointing qualifying performance. Autosport.com has the details.
Nico Rosberg said he was to blame for failing to qualify on the front row of the grid alongside Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The German finished 0.558s adrift of Hamilton, with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel taking second, and admitted he got his strategy wrong regarding tyres.
Rosberg took it easy on his lap in Q2, to save extra life in the set tyres that will be used to start the race, but he then struggled to find a rhythm in Q3.
“Strategy-wise I got it wrong,” admitted Rosberg. “I was thinking too much about the race and I under-estimated Sebastian’s speed.
“I took it easy in Q2 to save the race tyres, so I lacked the rhythm for Q3. That’s where I went wrong today. Being third is not ideal.”
Rosberg added that the decision to run a used set of option tyres for the first run in Q3 as well as the lack of pace caught him by surprise.
“I didn’t expect to go on used in the first part of Q3,” he said. “I thought we would go two new soft sets of tyres and I didn’t expect the used tyre to be so slow.
“The used tyre was really, really poor. I thought it would be good, especially as I took it easy on that used tyre in Q1 as well.
“But it was really poor so that meant I only had a shot at the end and it was just poor management, especially as Sebastian is in front, otherwise it would have been OK.”
When asked to clarify whether it was poor management on his part or the team’s Rosberg said: “My side. We’re together but I’m responsible.”
Hamilton, who like his team-mate Rosberg saved an extra set of soft tyres for the race, said he was delighted to score his first pole position in Bahrain at his seventh attempt.
“I feel great, very happy,” said the reigning world champion. “That was the target, to try to master this track. That’s how it’s gone this weekend. The laps were pretty good, you can always improve, but I’m grateful to have this beast underneath me.”
Vettel, meanwhile, was pleased to have split the Mercedes for the first time in dry conditions this season.
“Very happy with second today,” said the German. “It was a tough session. I didn’t find the rhythm to begin with but at the end it was getting better and I could push.
“I’m very happy with the front row – in the race we are maybe a bit closer so let’s see what happens. We are trying to push in all areas but for now we are happy with where we are.
“It’s the first time we have been able to split the two Mercedes in dry conditions so I’m very happy.”
Despite qualifying in P14, Fernando Alonso wants a ‘deep’ reliability look into what affected his McLaren team-mate during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend. Autosport.com has the story.
Fernando Alonso has called for the McLaren Formula 1 team to hold a “deep” investigation into Jenson Button’s reliability woes at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Button was struck with his third car failure of the Sakhir weekend in qualifying, after suffering problems in both Friday practice sessions.
Despite an encouraging step forward in pace, with the team getting through to Q2 for the first time this year, Alonso made it clear that what has happened to Button is a worry.
“Definitely this is a concern at the moment,” said Alonso. “Reliability is not good enough and we know we need to improve.
“The main priority is to finish the race with both cars – because the more laps we do, the more things we learn.
“We need to go very deep in the investigation of Jenson’s car because there have been too many problems this weekend and it is not good.
“It is the way it is. We are not happy with the situation but we are facing reliability problems and performance problems – there are too many things.
“We need to learn to walk before we run and we are in that phase now.”
Although mindful of the reliability problems, Alonso did admit that getting out of Q1 for the first time this season was vital for McLaren to prove that progress was being made.
“It is important,” he said after ending up 14th.
“It is not a dream come true going into Q2, especially for us because we have higher expectations than going to Q2.
“We knew we were going in the right direction with car performance, but to always go out in Q1 makes some doubts.
“So for the team motivation, for the engineers and mechanics – they were yesterday working until 5am on the car – to have confirmation we are going in the right direction was important and we needed it.”
Although Button was disappointed not to get a lap in qualifying, he was remained positive about the improvement in pace.
“We have had less problems than another engine manufacturer has had, and they have been in it for a year already,” he said in reference to Renault. “It is just everything has come at once.
“The important thing is we are improving.
“Fernando got through to Q2 which is a good step, but it is a pity I couldn’t be there as well.
“There are improvements and we have to stay focused, but it is frustrating when you cannot do a lap in qualifying.”
Red Bull Racing’s Daniil Kvyat blames energy problems which caused an early exit in qualifying. Autosport.com has the news story.
Daniil Kvyat believes “energy issues” with his Red Bull’s Renault power unit were to blame for his Q1 exit during qualifying for Formula 1’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Russian failed to get through the first segment of qualifying, meaning he will line-up 17th on the grid only ahead of the Manor/Marussia cars and Jenson Button – whose McLaren broke down before he could complete a lap.
Kvyat’s team-mate Daniel Ricciardo qualified seventh, and the Toro Rosso graduate said that he was struck by problems that did not affect the team’s lead car.
“We can roughly understand what the problem was,” Kvyat told reporters after qualifying.
“We think that there were a few energy issues in qualifying.
“But we need to analyse them deeper, understand what provoked them, and how it affected the performance.
“Let’s wait and see where the real issue was. It’s like a snowball – one thing leads to another.”
Kvyat believes that the problems were significant enough to mean that it did not matter how well he drove in qualifying because he could not affect his result.
“These things keep striking in qualifying and I can’t really deliver a proper lap,” he said.
“We understand these things shouldn’t happen, then once we tidy them up I think we will do OK.
“I think my lap was fine enough and more or less all I could do.
“If everything was together of course I wasn’t 1.2 seconds off my team-mate – Daniel doesn’t have the same issues.
“He extracted everything from the car, but he had a normal run, and I didn’t.”
Ricciardo was pretty pleased with his performance, and reckoned that there was a chance of being able to challenge Williams in the race.
“It will take everything we have got,” he said. “But if we use everything we have got, that is the start, strategy, and tyre management.
“If we do a 10/10 race from our side, which I feel we are yet to do this season and I feel we are ready for it, then we can challenge them. It is realistic.”
Ferrari Formula 1 driver Kimi Raikkonen admitted he underestimated the grip level at the end of Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying as he ended up fourth on the grid.
The Finn – who last week in China described poor qualifying as a “habit” he needed to break – achieved his best grid position of the year, but he was overshadowed by Ferrari team-mate Vettel splitting the Mercedes to get on the front row.
“I think there was more grip than I expected,” said Raikkonen.
“Afterwards it’s easy to say I could have pushed a bit harder in certain places but I wasn’t sure.
“But the car was OK, the lap wasn’t too bad, maybe I just ran a little bit wide in one corner but that wouldn’t have cost a lot of laptime.
“I could have pushed more in certain places because there was surprisingly good grip.”
The result was still Raikkonen’s best qualifying position since the 2013 German GP.
“It gives you a better chance or a more easy life for tomorrow as long as we make a good start out of it,” he said.
“Obviously then the race can turn out to be different because of that, so that helps.
“We know that we still have some work to do and things to improve but I’d take this rather than fifth or sixth place – I’m kind of happy.”
Source: Autosport.com
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton expects resurgent Ferrari to be hard to beat in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix and Sebastian Vettel hopes to prove him right.
After the pair qualified on the front row on Saturday, with Hamilton on pole for the fourth race in succession for Mercedes, Vettel told reporters his Italian team had taken another important step.
“We are trying to push on all areas but for now I think we can be very, very happy with where we are,” said the four-times champion, who has been on the podium in all three races for Ferrari since he left Red Bull.
“Today is the first time we were able to split them (the Mercedes drivers) in true dry conditions in qualifying, so very happy.”
Hamilton’s team mate Nico Rosberg qualified third, with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen fourth.
“I think in the race we are maybe a bit closer, so we will see what happens,” Vettel added.
“We are progressing as a team. For this race we didn’t bring any updates in particular, so it’s really that the circuit is maybe a little bit better for us.
“And…continuously working with the car, getting on top of what to do with the car and learning how the changes are reacting on track. So, I think that’s the area where we are making most progress at the minute.”
Hamilton, who has won two out of three races and leads Vettel by 13 points in the standings, will not be able to control the race as he did in China when he had Rosberg behind him.
All the talk before Bahrain was of a re-run of last year’s race, a wheel-to-wheel battle between the Mercedes drivers under the floodlights.
It could turn out instead to be a repeat of last month’s Malaysian Grand Prix where the front row was the same, and Rosberg also qualified third, but Vettel won with better tyre management and strategy.
“We’ve gone over it tons of times already about what we have learned, but it doesn’t get us away from the fact that they are very quick this weekend,” said Hamilton.
“They are going to be very hard to beat tomorrow, they have great race pace.”
Vettel, sitting alongside in a news conference, could only agree.
“I hope he’s right,” the German said.
Source: Reuters