the dutch pilot max verstappen (Red Bull) has signed the pole for the race of Bahrain Grand Prixfirst date of Formula 1 World Cupafter dominating the qualifying session ahead of his teammate Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) and the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainzwhile Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) will start fifth in an exciting weekend.
With a time of 1:29.708, the reigning world champion sealed his 20th pole position in a spectacular and very tight Q3where he beat the Mexican by one tenth ‘Czech’ Perez, who will accompany you in the first row of the grill. In the second will be the Monegasque Leclerc, who finished less than three tenths behind, and the Madrid Carlos Sainz, fourth at 0.446.
Alonso, who invited optimism after leading Free Practice 2 and 3confirmed the good feelings and will start fifth, ahead of the Mercedes of the british George Russell and lewis hamilton, all in six tenths. Thus, up to four teams will have real options to fight for victory this Sunday.
At the sunset of Sakhir, the Ferrari They were one of the first to go out on the track, with a medium tire, and the Monegasque car charles leclerc waved the first red flag already in Q1 after losing some pieces and getting stuck under braking in turn 1. The Red Bulls and the McLarens, who had already made their appearance on soft compounds, were the biggest losers due to the arrest of the session, while Fernando Alonso, who dominated both the second and third free practice sessions, had not yet left the garage.
The action resumed on the track after a few minutes and soon the times began to fall. In his first lap launched, the Asturian surpassed the reference time of the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) with a time of 1:31.158, before the British George Russell and Leclerc also beat him.
However, It was Carlos Sainz who managed to rise to the top and close Q1 in first position (1:30.993), in which the Frenchman Pierre Gasly (Alpine), the Danish Kevin Magnussen (Haas), the Australian Oscar Piastri (McLaren), the Dutch Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri) and also the American Logan Sargeant (Williams), who was left out with the same time as the British Lando Norris (McLaren), who was saved for having done it earlier.
The cars headed to Q2 with used tire, and the Red Bulls were the first to lower Sainz’s brand. Leclerc, with a spectacular 1:30.282, took the lead on the time table ahead of ‘Mad Max’ and the two Mercedes, the big surprises in the classification. With Sainz fifth behind his teammate and Alonso sixth behind three, Norris, the Finnish Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), the Chinese Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo), the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and the Thai Alex Albon ( Williams) said goodbye to the fight after failing to make the cut.
Everything would be decided in the definitive Q3, where nobody hid anything. The first to show his cards was Verstappen, who stopped the clock in 1: 29.897. Leclerc, one tenth behind, got out of the car after setting his time, and Sainz tried to improve his with a new soft tyre. The defending champion still had time to improve himself (1:29.708), with ‘Checo’ Pérez very close, to one tenth. Leclerc and Sainz settled for third and fourth place, respectively, and Alonso confirmed his aspirations with a fifth starting position, just ahead of the Mercedes.