Verstappen leads Red Bull 1-2 in Bahrain quali

Max Verstappen is set to start the 2023 season opener alongside his teammate after securely claiming pole position in a gripping qualifying session at the Bahrain Grand Prix, AUTO ACTION’s Reese Mautone reports…

Qualifying 1:
– As the lights turned green for the first qualifying session of the season, many cars rushed out onto the circuit to begin the fight for pole position.

– The Alpha Tauri duo of Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck De Vries were the first drivers to take to the circuit, followed by the uncertain Ferrari outfit.

– Setting the tone, the wheel brow of Charles Leclerc’s SF-23 flew off as he started his first flying lap, followed by a lock-up into Turn 1 which saw the Ferrari driver abandon his first attempt.

– Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz also had an undesirable first run, aggressively mounting curbs and ultimately facing a lap time deletion due to track limits violations.

– A red flag was called to collect the debris, halting track action temporarily.

– As the session restarted, lap times began rolling in. Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, Leclerc, George Russell and Sainz all traded fastest sectors on their first official flying laps, ending with Sainz recording a 1:30.993 lap time ahead of Russell and Leclerc in the top three.

– Both McLarens found themselves in the knockout zone with 5 minutes to go in Q1. Lando Norris sat ahead of his teammate in P17 before recovering to P15, equal with Logan Sargeant, while his rookie teammate Oscar Piastri failed to make it through to Q2, set to start the Bahrain Grand Prix in P18.

– As they have in previous sessions this weekend, Aston Martin remained in contention for pole position, ending Q1 with the 4th and 5th fastest times.

– Nico Hulkenberg in P6 out-qualified his Haas teammate, with Kevin Magnussen knocked out after setting a time only quick enough for P17.

– From P1 to P20, the grid was covered by 1.128 seconds.

Knocked out: P16 Logan Sargeant, P17 Pierre Gasly, P18 Kevin Magnussen, P19 Oscar Piastri, P20 Nyck De Vries.

Qualifying 2:
– Both Ferrari and Red Bull rolled out of their garages on new sets of soft tyres, having still got two new sets of soft tyres available for tomorrow’s race.

– After the remaining 15 cars completed their opening Q2 runs, the usual three front-running teams made up the top seven times, with Alonso slotting himself in amongst the action in P5.

– Midway through the session, Max Verstappen beat out his teammate by over two-tenths, recording a time of 1:30.503, quicker than that of the 2022 pole position time, putting him in P1.

– Ultimately, Leclerc topped the Q2 session with a time of 1:30.2, ahead of his closest competition.

– Track limits and car setup plagued both of Alex Albon’s flying laps, leaving him unable to set a time in Q2. The Thai driver will start tomorrow’s race in P15.

– Esteban Ocon and Hulkenberg extracted the most out of their midfield cars, both making it through to the top ten shootout, while Norris in the Mclaren narrowly missed out on joining them.

Knocked out: P11. Lando Norris, P12. Valtteri Bottas, P13. Zhou Guanyu, P14. Yuki Tsunoda, P15. Alex Albon.

Qualifying 3:
– Verstappen led the final charge out of the pitlane, setting the first sub-1:30.000 lap and remaining ahead of his 2022 rival by over a tenth.

– Sainz’s first attempt at claiming pole position saw him take more curb than desired yet again, leaving him 0.464 seconds off Verstappen’s time.

– Alonso temporarily got his Aston Martin up onto the second row, ahead of both Mercedes, while his teammate trailed in the latter half of the top 10.

– Leclerc’s session ended early when he returned to the garage and got out of his Ferrari. The Monegasque’s time was quick enough to remain in the top three for tomorrow’s race, set to start in P3.

– Lining up alongside him will be his teammate whose last-ditch attempts for pole position failed in comparison to the Red Bulls. Sainz will start the Bahrain Grand Prix in P4.

– Red Bull have secured themselves a front-row lockout with Max Verstappen taking the first pole position of the season at a track favouring the 2023 Champion’s car. The Dutchman recorded a time of 1:29.708, just over a tenth quicker than Sergio Perez in P2.

The Bahrain Grand Prix will take place at 6:00 pm local time on Sunday (2:00 am, Monday AEST).

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2023 Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying results