#BahrainGP Qualifying: @LewisHamilton storms to 98th-career pole position. #F1

Seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton clinched his 98th-career pole position in qualifying at the Bahrain GP and ahead Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas taking second with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen third.

After Verstappen topped the final practice session, it was Hamilton who struck back, taking P1 in all three qualifying stages, leading the way claiming provisional pole in the initial Q3 flyers with a 1:27.677.

Hamilton found time in all three sectors on his second hot-lap on the C4 softs, smashing the track record with a 1:27.264.

Verstappen held second place after the first flying laps in the final segment, after he complained over the radio of not having enough rear grip he had enjoyed in the earlier FP3 session, with Bottas sitting in third.

But the Finn was able to improve on his final run to jump into second to secure Mercedes it’s 11th front-row lockout of the season, as Verstappen lost time in sector three and wound up 0.414 seconds adrift of Hamilton’s Bahrain GP pole time.

Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Alexander Albon took fourth in-front of Racing Point’s Sergio Perez who was fifth, who relegated Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo by one place on his last effort.

Esteban Ocon will start behind his Renault team-mate Ricciardo in seventh, with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly qualifying in eighth.

McLaren’s Lando Norris and the second AlphaTauri AT01 of Daniil Kvyat completed the top ten.

All of the top ten drivers will be starting the race on the C3 yellow-marked medium rubber.

In the middle qualifying segment, McLaren’s Carlos Sainz brought out the session’s sole red flag after spinning at the end of the main-straight after the rear wheels on his MCL35 racer locked as he approached the end of the first corner.

The Spaniard came to a halt at the edge of the track and was unable to continue, which forced race control to suspend the session so the McLaren could be recovered.

This stopped a big pack of cars, lead by Ricciardo, from posting the opening flying lap-times of Q2 and halted the segment for over five minutes.

When Q2 resumed, the field was split between a few early runners pushing to get through on the C3 mediums (all drivers except the AlphaTauri duo and Williams Racing’s George Russell, who remained in the pits at the start of the middle segment, had at first headed out on that compound) and others waited until the closing stages.

Hamilton lead the pack ahead of Verstappen and Bottas, and the usual front-three were followed by Albon, Norris and Perez, who were massively behind the P1 benchmark effort and fell under-pressure to use the C4 softer rubber, which few drivers will want to run given its heavy degrading by 0.5 seconds each lap.

Albon and Norris did put on a set of softs, but they were beaten by Perez were only beaten by Ricciardo during the final hot laps in the second qualifying stage,

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel wound up outside the top ten in 11th place, missing out on a Q3 appearance by 0.141 seconds and finished ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc who was 12th.

BWT Racing Point F1 Team’s Lance Stroll qualified in 13th, with the Canadian blaming it on a “miscommunication” and will start in-front of Williams Racing’s Russell who took 14th and the aforementioned Sainz who ended up 15th due to his stoppage.

In Q1, Alfa Romeo Racing pairing Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen were the quickest of the eliminatees, qualifying in 16th and 17th respectively in-front of Haas F1 Team duo Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen with Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi bringing up the rear.

The Top Three

Pole Position – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+: 

“I’m keeping my mind and my eye on the ball. To be out here in Bahrain and put laps like that together – with the pressure off, it’s a bit of a release. I’m on the ragged edge, the lap started really well but there’s always a little bit here and there…”

2nd Place – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+:

“It felt good, it feels like you’re extracting everything but the time isn’t there. There were no mistakes it felt good but at least it is another front row. Long runs were good so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

3rd Place – Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16:

“My lap was pretty good just lacking a bit of rear grip in the low-speed corners but overall it was a decent qualifying. Let’s see how we get on in the race as it is very hard on tyres but I think we made a good compromise for that. I think they [Mercedes] picked up their pace today.”

You can see the full Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2020/races/1059/bahrain/qualifying.html

In the earlier FP3 session, it was Red Bull Racing’s Verstappen topping the time-sheets ahead of Mercedes duo Hamilton and Bottas who were second and third respectively with the other Red Bull of Albon fourth and McLaren’s Sainz rounding out the top five.

You can catch up on the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2020 Free Practice 1 and 2 reports below as well as this weekend’s race preview:

#BahrainGP: The post-practice debrief – FP2 report and driver reactions. #F1

#BahrainGP FP1 report: @LewisHamilton heads @MercedesAMGF1 one-two. #F1

#Formula1 @GulfAir #BahrainGrandPrix 2020 Preview. #F1 #BahrainGP @BAH_Int_Circuit