Ferrari is there, it’s confirmed. A red single-seater will start from pole position in the Bahrain Grand Prix thanks to Charles Leclerc. At the scene of his first pole in 2019, the Monegasque set a time of 1:30.558, enough to allow him to start ahead of everyone tomorrow. Defending champion Max Verstappen (Red Bull) will start alongside him following failing at 123 thousandths. The red and blue match promises!
The other F1-75, driven by Carlos Sainz, will start third. The Spaniard only missed the front row by 6 thousandths. He will have at his side the second Red Bull driven by Sergio Pérez. We must therefore go down to fifth place to find the first Mercedes, that of Lewis Hamilton. The Briton is 68 hundredths behind Leclerc.
The best of the rest is led by Valtteri Bottas who did not miss his debut at Alfa Romeo. The Finn will start sixth alongside his former Mercedes captain. Haas is in the game, as evidenced by the seventh time of Kevin Magnussen who took over Fernando Alonso (Alpine).
Disappointment on the other hand in the stronghold of George Russell, ninth only for his first Grand Prix as a full-time holder at Mercedes. Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri), once once more brilliant, took tenth place.
Two brand teams did not make the Top 10: McLaren and Aston Martin. Lando Norris might not do better than 13th in time behind Mick Schumacher (Haas) while Daniel Ricciardo, back following missing the second week of pre-season testing due to the Covid, is in a disappointing 18th place.
It was worse with the Greens, eliminated in Q1! Nico Hülkenberg is 17th, which is nevertheless a good performance given that the German discovered the AMR22 on Friday. Lance Stroll, who knows his Aston Martin well, is 19th!