2020 F1 BAHRAIN GP QUALIFYING : HAMILTON LEADS BOTTAS IN A MERCEDES 1-2

Hamilton on his 98th F1 career pole: “I think with the pressure a little bit off it was a release to go and drive like that. I am on the ragged edge, naturally, and it is about trying to find that perfect balance and chipping away.”

Bottas on his deficit to Hamilton in qualifying: “It [the lap] felt good, that’s the problem, you feel you are extracting everything from the car so that is the most confusing part. It is small things here and there, not one clear corner.”

Verstappen on his P3: “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.”

Here’s the full story on qualifying for the Bahrain GP

Formula 1 2020 champion Lewis Hamilton took his 10th pole position of the season in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Though Red Bull driver Max Verstappen had topped FP3 earlier on Saturday, he complained of “not having the same rear grip” during qualifying and was powerless to stop Hamilton and Mercedes from sweeping all three segments of qualifying.

Hamilton was a tenth and a half up on Verstappen after the opening runs in Q3, with the other Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas a further tenth off a provisional front row spot.

But Bottas improved on his second run to jump ahead of Verstappen, though Hamilton’s own improvement left him three tenths clear of his team-mate.

Qualification – Bahrain

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time
1	Lewis HAMILTON	Mercedes	1: 27.264
2	Valtteri BOTTAS	Mercedes	1: 27,553
3	Max VERSTAPPEN	Red Bull	1: 27,678
4	Alexander ALBON	Red Bull	1: 28.274
5	Sergio PÉREZ	Racing Point	1: 28,322
6	Daniel RICCIARDO	Renault	1: 28.417
7	Esteban OCON	Renault	1: 28.419
8	Pierre GASLY	Alpha Tauri	1: 28.448
9	Lando NORRIS	McLaren	1: 28,542
10	Daniil KVYAT	Alpha Tauri	1: 28,618
11	Sebastian VETTEL	Ferrari	1: 29.149
12	Charles LECLERC	Ferrari	1: 29.165
13	Lance STROLL	Racing Point	1: 29.557
14	George RUSSELL	Williams	1: 31,218
15	Carlos SAINZ	McLaren
16	Antonio GIOVINAZZI	Alfa Romeo	1: 29,491
17	Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN	Alfa Romeo	1: 29.810
18	Kevin MAGNUSSEN	Haas	1: 30.111
19	Romain GROSJEAN	Haas	1: 30.138
20	Nicholas LATIFI	Williams	1: 30.182

Alex Albon made it a second row lock-out for Red Bull despite being six tenths slower than Verstappen in the end.

Sergio Perez claimed fifth for Racing Point, ahead of Renault duo Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon, the latter missing out on a rare qualifying victory against Ricciardo by just 0.002s.

AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly was as high as fourth after logging his final lap but was shuffled down to a final eighth place, albeit less than two tenths off fourth-placed Albon.

Lando Norris, who had flirted with elimination in Q1, was the lead McLaren in ninth in a disappointing qualifying for the team, while Daniil Kvyat made up the top 10 as AlphaTauri reached Q3 with both cars for the second time in three races.

An apparent rear brake failure for Carlos Sainz Jr brought out an early red flag in the second segment, as his McLaren locked the rears and snapped out of control entering Turn 1, leaving him stranded on exit of the corner.

Once it resumed, every driver but Williams man George Russell sought to make Q3 on the mediums, and it was ultimately the two Ferraris, Turkey poleman Lance Stroll and Russell who joined Sainz on the sidelines.

At Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel outqualified Charles Leclerc for the second grand prix weekend running, winning the intra-team battle by 0.016s.

Stroll was a distant 13th, complaining of a “miscommunication” on the radio after the session – with the red flag appearing to have left the Canadian without any fresh sets of the medium.

Seven tenths off his team-mate and four tenths off the Ferrari row-six lock-out, Stroll was spared further embarrassment by Russell not getting a representative lap in.

Joining Sainz on row eight will be Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovinazzi, who was just 0.027s off denying the other McLaren of Norris a spot in the second segment.

Regardless of missing Q2, he handily won the intra-team battle against his squadmate Kimi Raikkonen, who trailed Giovinazzi by four tenths after the first runs in Q1 and only reduced the deficit by around a tenth at the chequered flag.

Yet this was still enough for Raikkonen to take 17th and comfortably outpace the closely-matched Haas duo, with Kevin Magnussen just beating Romain Grosjean to 18th.

Nicholas Latifi suffered his 15th successive team-mate defeat in qualifying, and though he was just 1.839s off Hamilton’s Q1-topping pace, he failed to escape last place and was nine tenths slower than Russell.

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