Red Bull secure Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying lockout as champion Max Verstappen claims pole position

Max Verstappen led a Red Bull 1-2 in Saturday’s qualifying at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

FP3 had ended with 41-year-old Spanish former world champion Fernando Alonso as the fastest on track so far, with questions remaining over the sustainability of his pace.

Behind him was current title holder Verstappen alongside team-mate Sergio Perez of Red Bull, with Lewis Hamilton in behind hoping to lead a reinvigorated challenge after a disappointing 2022 with Mercedes.

Toto Wolff, the German marque’s team principal, promised a side pod change to come this season, but he and Hamilton were far from bullish.

Last season’s closest challenger, Charles Leclerc of Ferrari, lost part of his wheel arch early in Q1 which meant the first qualifying red flag of the season after just six minutes.

Three of the season’s new drivers were cut at the end of the first session, as Logan Sargeant (Williams), Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Nyck de Vries (Alpha Tauri) were joined by Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and Pierre Gasly (Alpine).

Piastri arrived in the summer an in-demand driver, but his team acknowledged at the car’s unveiling that they had not met their desired targets.

The pace stepped up a gear in Q2, with the Red Bull pair looking dominant, and this time both the Alfa Romeos – the unchanged pairing of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas – plus Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri) and Williams’ Alex Albon went out. Joining the quartet was McLaren’s Lando Norris, who was unable to carry last year’s impressive form into the season’s first qualifying.

With minutes remaining of Q3, Verstappen was leading and his challenger Leclerc suffered what must be a technical problem, as he left his car in the garage midway through the final runout, meaning he had no hope of taking pole.

The Monegasque ended in third on the second row, joined by team-mate Carlos Sainz in fourth place.

Alonso took fifth, followed by George Russell of Mercedes and Hamilton in sixth and seventh respectively.