Bahrain Qualifying Report

Q1:

The cars headed out for Q1 under the lights. It was Sainz who set the first time of qualifying in 2024, followed by his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, and the two Haas’ of Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen – all of which were on the medium tyre compound. The first soft tyre run came from Alex Albon, with the time he set being a 1:30.692. The final top three were Sainz, Stoll and Verstappen.

However, it was an atrocious showing by the Enstone based team. Alpine had their worst qualifying performance since 2016, with both cars being on the last row of the grid. Esteban Ocon only just beat his fellow Frenchman, Pierre Gasly, by 0.155 of a second. Kick Sauber was another team that lost both its drivers in Q1. Along with the two Alpine drivers, Bottas, Zhou, and Sargeant were also eliminated in the first part of qualifying.

Q2:

The light at the end of the pit lane turned green and the cars headed out for Q2. The first time of this session was set by Nico Hülkenberg on soft compound tyres. It was revealed during this session that George Russell would have to see the stewards after qualifying due to not reaching the maximum delta time. All drivers were instructed by the Race Director that they had to do an out-lap in a specific amount of time to stop cars from going unnecessarily slow and holding others up. After qualifying finished, however, the investigation was dropped.

The top three of Q2 were Leclerc, Verstappen, and Sainz – the Ferrari’s showing a glimmer of hope against the three-time World Champion Max Verstappen. The five drivers we lost were Tsunoda, Stroll, Albon, Ricciardo, and Magnussen.

Q3:

The top ten shootout arrived and we had six teams fighting it out for the first pole position of the year. The first time set in Q3 was again by Nico Hülkenberg, with the German setting a time of 1:30.502. Amazingly, there were no yellow or red flags to disrupt the running in any part of qualifying. The ten remaining drivers crossed the line and it was Max Verstappen who took the first pole position of 2024! Verstappen came across the line with a 1:29.179. The top three were rounded out by Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari, and George Russell in his Mercedes.

Let’s have a look at the whole grid for tomorrow’s race:

Verstappen

Leclerc

Russell

Sainz

Perez

Alonso

Norris

Piastri

Hamilton

Hülkenberg

Tsunoda

Stroll

Albon

Ricciardo

Magnussen

Bottas

Zhou

Sargeant

Ocon

Gasly

Tomorrow we will see the cars take to the track for the first race in 2024! We will finally be able to see the true pace of our favourite teams and drivers. Who will take the first win of 2024? Who will fall short and below expectations? We will find out when the five lights go out!