Verstappen beats Hamilton to Bahrain GP pole

Max Verstappen won a qualifying duel with Lewis Hamilton to give Red Bull-Honda pole for Formula 1’s 2021 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Just 0.023s had separated Verstappen – who had a scare in Q2 with a violent trip over the kerbs that he feared might damage his floor – and Hamilton following the first Q3 runs.

He's been unstoppable so far on our opening race weekend of 2021 👏

And @Max33Verstappen was too quick for the rest in Saturday's race for pole 🚀#BahrainGP 🇧🇭 #F1 pic.twitter.com/846mv6KBDQ

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 27, 2021

But Verstappen declared that first lap “shit” over the radio and although Hamilton briefly grabbed provisional pole with a 1m29.385s at the second attempt, Verstappen crossed the line 0.388s with a 1m28.997s moments later to settle the fight.

Valtteri Bottas was 0.589s back in third place in the second Mercedes, and had been fourth behind Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri after the first Q3 efforts.

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Gasly ended up dropping to fifth thanks to a late jump to fourth by Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.

That still gives Honda two cars in the top five, but only one Red Bull in the top 10 – as Sergio Perez was eliminated in Q2 on his team debut.

He lost an initial lap to a track limits infringement, then just wasn’t quite quick enough on medium tyres to reach Q3 when a host of midfield runners switched to softs.

Ferrari was among those, allowing it to go 1-2 in Q2 with Carlos Sainz Jr just 0.001s ahead of Leclerc. Sainz had only just made it out of Q1 after his car cut out temporarily following a kerb strike and left him 15th. He eventually qualified eighth.

McLaren had an encouraging start to its Mercedes reunion with Daniel Ricciardo outqualifying Lando Norris at the first attempt as they lined up sixth and seventh.

Fernando Alonso announced his return to F1 by reaching Q3 and putting his Alpine ninth, just ahead of Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin.

Though Perez was the most competitively significant Q3 absentee, he was far from the only big name to drop out early.

Sebastian Vettel will start 18th for his Aston Martin debut, having had to back off for yellow flags twice on his final Q1 lap – first for Nikita Mazepin spinning at the first corner then for Sainz’s slowing car.

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Esteban Ocon also cited the yellows after ending up only 16th in his Alpine.

And Honda lost two potentially very competitve cars in Q2. Yuki Tsunoda had followed up his strong practice pace with a startling second place in Q1 for AlphaTauri, but trying to get through Q2 on mediums backfired for him too and he was pushed down to 13th.

Alfa Romeo won the ‘Class C’ battle as it got both cars into Q2 – Antonio Giovinazzi 12th and Kimi Raikkonen 14th, ahead of George Russell in the best of the Williams. His team-mate Nicholas Latifi was between Ocon and Vettel in 17th.

The Mazepin spin that hampered Ocon and Vettel was his second of Q1, as he ended up last and eight tenths of a second off 19th-placed Haas team-mate Mick Schumacher.

Qualifying Results