Leclerc beats Verstappen to Bahrain pole for 2022 F1 opener

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc took pole position in the first qualifying of Formula 1’s new era in Bahrain.

Leclerc narrowly outpaced reigning champion Max Verstappen and his team-mate Carlos Sainz, while the hybrid era’s dominant team so far, Mercedes, had to settle for a best result of fifth, courtesy of Lewis Hamilton.

The two Ferraris and Verstappen were within 0.056s of each other after their opening runs in Q3, with Sainz holding provisional pole.

But the Spaniard failed to improve on his final attempt, whereas both Leclerc and Verstappen – the latter dissatisfied with the leisurely speed of his initial outlap – did.

Leclerc was a tenth down on Sainz in the first sector but overcame the gap over the rest of the lap to pick up his 10th pole position in F1, 0.123s up on Verstappen.

Sergio Perez was a quarter of a second down on his team-mate in fourth, with Hamilton another three tenths down in fifth. Hamilton’s new Mercedes team-mate George Russell was around one or two tenths behind him all throughout qualifying, but botched the first sector of his final lap and had to settle for ninth.

Valtteri Bottas, the man Russell replaced at Mercedes, secured a sixth-place start for his first race with Alfa Romeo, while Kevin Magnussen marked his Haas return with seventh – despite being limited to just one run in Q2 and one run in Q3 thanks to a hydraulics problem.

Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) wound up either side of Russell in Q3.

Gasly’s last-second Q2 improvement denied Alpine a Q3 double, with Esteban Ocon left in 11th and set to share row six with Haas driver Mick Schumacher, whose final lap was ruined by a big snap through Turn 11.

Lando Norris led McLaren’s efforts in 13th on what was a fairly miserable day for the Woking-based team, while Alex Albon qualified 14th on his F1 return – his Williams team-mate Nicholas Latifi having ended Q1 in last place.

Albon would’ve been 15th but for rookie Zhou Guanyu having his best laptime in the second segment deleted for track limits, which ultimately only cost the Alfa Romeo newcomer one place.

Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) were both around seven tenths off their respective team-mates in the first qualifying segment and were therefore eliminated. Tsunoda had skipped all of FP3 due to a mechanical problem, while Ricciardo had skipped the entirety of the pre-weekend three-day Bahrain test due to COVID-19.

Super-sub Nico Hulkenberg, standing in for a COVID-sidelined Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin, slotted in 17th between Tsunoda and Ricciardo, beating the Silverstone-based team’s regular race driver Lance Stroll by a quarter of a second with his final attempt.

Qualifying Results