Valtteri Bottas claimed his first pole position since the Emilia-Romagna as he edged interim Mercedes teammate George Russell by just 0.026s to secure his position on the front row for the Sakhir Grand Prix.
The Finn was able to use his experience to set a 0:53.377s lap time around Bahrain’s outer loop circuit, his young teammate was unable to get close enough as the Brit struggled to match veteran Valtteri in sector one.
Russell, who is known for his good performances in qualifying was just shy of the lap time set but Bottas, he has had limited running in Mercedes’ W11 after stepping in for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton after he tested positive for COVID-19.
Max Verstappen was on provisional pole position as Mercedes opted to set their first Q3 times on used soft compound tyres, the dutchman found himself 0.056s off the two Mercedes’ come the end of the session.
A phenomenal lap from Charles Leclerc secured fourth for the Monegasque driver, ahead of Sergio Perez who is looking for redemption after being forced to retire from third position in last week’s Grand Prix.
AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat also impressed as he secured sixth, three places ahead of his teammate Pierre Gasly.
Daniel Riccardo placed his Renault in seventh, in what is an important weekend for Renault in the bid to claim third in the constructors, McLaren’s Carlos Sainz will line up next to the Aussie driver.
Gasly claimed ninth place in what is viewed as a poor qualifying for the Frenchman after his teammate is two rows ahead, Lance Stroll completes the top 10.
Esteban Ocon was 11th despite looking strong all weekend for a Q3 appearance, Alexander Albon failed to make Q3 for the third time this season, the Thia driver will be looking for a positive Sunday in the bid to keep his Red Bull seat for 2021.
Sebastian Vettel was unable to join Ferrari teammate Leclerc in the top 10 as he struggled to find a gap in the track to be able to set a clean lap time, he will have free tyre choice for Sunday’s race.
Antonio Giovinazzi impressed as he claimed 14th position ahead of Lando Norris who had his worst qualifying of the year as the Brit failed to improve on his final run to finish in 15th just a week after he claimed 4th in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Kevin Magnussen failed to make it into Q2 by only 0.091s securing 16th for Haas F1 Team, Canadian Nicholas Latifi out-qualified his teammate for the first time in Formula 1 as his rookie teammate Jack Aitken.
Aitken had a stellar qualifying as he got within a tenth of Latifi, as well as previously being ahead 25-year old the majority of qualifying before making a small error on his final run.
Kimi Raikkonen was unable to match teammate Giovinazzi as he claimed 19th on the grid ahead of debutant Pietro Fittipaldi in his first-ever qualifying session for Haas.
The Brazilian driver was always due to start at the back of the grid come Sunday, due to a power unit change after Romain Grosjean’s crash last weekend at the Bahrain Grand Prix.”
By Cameron Anderson-Jones
