Oscar Piastri took his second pole of the season ahead of shock front-row starter George Russell after McLaren teammate Lando Norris unexpectedly flopped at the end of qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Contrary to pre-qualifying expectations, Piastri and McLaren were made to work for pole position, with the field closing in on the MCL39 as day turned to night.
Piastri rook provisional pole, but such was the rate of track improvement and the closeness of the competition at the front that four different drivers beat that time with their second laps, forcing the Australian to respond from fifth in the order and the third-last car over the line. But he didn’t flinch, delivering purple times in the final two sectors to seize back top spot and set himself up on pole for his 50th grand prix start.
“I felt confident out there pretty much all weekend,” he said. “I’ve felt really comfortable with the car.
“In qualifying the others caught up a little bit closer than I wanted, but I delivered the laps when it mattered. I can’t thank my team enough for the car they’ve given me.”
Russell was thrilled to get to just 0.168s from pole after dire pre-qualifying predictions, though he doubled down on doubts that Piastri could be challenged on Sunday.
“I think if anybody said we’d be within half a second of the McLarens, we’d have taken it, because we would’ve thought that would be P3 on the grid, so it’s a bonus,” he said.
“As the session unfolded we just seemed to get quicker and quicker. Being P2 is a great chance for tomorrow, but it will be a challenge to fight with Oscar.”
However, Russell and teammate Kimi Antonelli were subsequently both given one-place grid penalties for a pit lane infringement during Q2.
Charles Leclerc completed the top three despite a low-key build-up to qualifying for Ferrari. The team brought a major upgrade to the car this weekend, and Leclerc said he hoped it was a sign of an upward trajectory.
“Honestly I didn’t expect P3,” he said. “I knew in Q3 there was some lap time … I just had to be patient and wait for the track to come to us.
“It feels like I’ve found my way a little bit, and little by little I hope there’ll be more performance to extract from this car in the weekends to come.”
Mercedes rookie Antonelli was just 0.372s off the pace for fourth, beating a superb Pierre Gasly in fifth by just 0.003s, both having eclipsed Piastri’s first lap with their second attempts.
Norris slumped to sixth with his second lap. He was third after his first attempt but found just 0.129s with his follow-up lap after a slide out of the first turn compromised his first sector, though his subsequent personal-best second and third splits would have left him more than 0.2s behind Piastri in any case.
Max Verstappen was a disappointed seventh in a Red Bull Racing car that the Dutchman said had “something really wrong” with it, including “just terrible brakes” throughout the session.
Carlos Sainz claimed the best qualifying result of his season to date for Williams with eighth on the grid, while the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda completed the top 10.
Jack Doohan missed a Q3 berth by just 0.017s in a nonetheless career-best 11th in qualifying.
Isack Hadjar was 12th for Racing Bulls despite his impressive top-10 practice pace, putting him ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in 13th and Fernando Alonso in 14th, the Spaniard radioing his team that he had got the most from the car on his way to 1.4s off the Q2 pace.
Esteban Ocon was eliminated 15th after crashing his car exiting Turn 2. The Haas driver got a snap of oversteer as he got on the throttle on exit, and his car became further unsettled as it clambered over the curb.
Now fully out of Ocon’s control, the car spun backwards through the gravel and made heavy contact with the barriers, forcing a brief red flag to collect the wreckage and rescue the unhurt Frenchman.
Alex Albon qualified 16th in his worst individual qualifying result of the year, this being the first time the Thai driver has failed to make it through to Q3 and the first time the team has had a car eliminated in Q1.
However, Albon later benefitted from Hulkenberg bizarrely having his fastest Q1 lap time deleted halfway through Q3, by which time he’d already progressed to and been eliminated from Q2. The stewards dumped the Sauber driver to 16th, promoting Alonso, Ocon and Albon a place apiece on the grid.
Liam Lawson qualified 17th after his DRS closed itself on his final lap, costing him crucial straight-line speed.
Gabriel Bortoleto will line up 18th ahead of Lance Stroll and Oliver Bearman on the back row.
