18 hours ago
7
Bahrain Grand Prix
Venue: Sakhir Dates: 11-13 April Race start: 16:00 BST on Sunday
Coverage: Race live on BBC Radio 5 Live. Live text updates on the BBC Sport website and app
McLaren's Oscar Piastri took pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix with team-mate Lando Norris down in sixth.
Mercedes' George Russell qualified second but was demoted one place behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc because a team operational error.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen, just one point behind Norris at the head of the championship, was one place behind the Briton in seventh.
Lewis Hamilton was just ninth in the Ferrari.
Mercedes' Andrea Kimi Antonelli qualified fourth but was dropped a place behind Pierre Gasly's impressive Alpine for the same offence as Russell.
McLaren had always looked a certainty for pole, but what had been expected to be a private battle between Piastri and Norris fizzled out.
Piastri's advantage over Russell was 0.168 seconds at the head of the field, and Leclerc 0.334secs off the Australian.
"I felt confident all weekend," Piastri said. "Qualifying, the others were a little closer than we wanted but got the lap time when it mattered. Can't thank the team enough for the car they've given me."
Norris, who was 0.426secs behind his team-mate, could not explain his lack of pace.
"I was just slow," he said. "I have been slow this whole weekend, to be honest. Nothing too surprising. I have just been off it.
"The car is amazing. I have nothing to complain about, the team are doing an amazing job but I am just letting them down."
At Ferrari, there was a similar split between their two drivers. Leclerc spoke of following an "extreme" set-up direction in the past couple of races that had made the car "very tricky to drive but it seems like I am quicker that way so we will keep going in that direction".
But Hamilton, 0.597secs slower than his team-mate, seemed unable to explain what had gone wrong from his side, and apologised to his team over the radio as he returned to the pits for what he said was "my poor performance".
"There's no reasons," he said. "I'm just not doing the job. It happens every Saturday yeah.
"Our car is clearly a lot better than what I am delivering with it, Charles did a great job with it today, so big apologies to the team for not doing the job."
Russell had looked on target to be best of the rest throughout the weekend, but finishing second was a happy surprise for the Briton.
"If anyone had said we'd have been within 0.5secs of the McLarens we'd have taken it," he said. "It was a really strong Q3. I wasn't really feeling it through qualifying, didn't have the confidence in myself. I don't know why that was. Q1 and Q2 was a real challenge.
"But Q3 got back into my rhythm and surprise to be just 0.15secs off pole and ahead of one of the McLarens. And Charles up there as well.
"As the session unfolded we got quicker and quicker. Lining up P2 is exciting but it's unlikely we'll be able to fight with Oscar."
The Mercedes drivers were penalised because the team released them too early to the end of the pit lane after a red-flag stoppage in the second session for a crash involving Haas driver Esteban Ocon.
A week after his outstanding performance to win in Japan, Verstappen and Red Bull looked like a different driver in a different car.
He complained over the radio about "terrible" braking and the Red Bull was out of its performance window around the Sakhir track.
"It was tough all weekend," Verstappen said. "For whatever reason I have been struggling with the brakes, the feeling also.
"It is something we need to investigate - and general grip throughout the lap. Quite inconsistent and that makes it very hard to understand what you need from the car when for whatever reason we can't seem to make the tyres work.
"We have tried a lot with the set-up but nothing really gave us a clear answer, so that is a bit of a shame."
His team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was 10th, ending up 0.88secs off Verstappen.
The surprise of qualifying was Gasly, just 0.375secs off pole for a team that is last in the championship with no points after the first three races.
"I'm so happy," the Frenchman said. "It was a very special lap. I just knew it was good, but I didn't expect it to be that good. I'm just very happy for the whole team. It has not been easy these first few races."
Towards the back, Williams' Alex Albon was prevented from progressing into the second part of qualifying because stewards did not notice that Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg had exceeded track limits on this final lap.
The German's time vaulted him ahead of Albon and into the top 15 who progressed, and it was only noticed that he had gone off track at Turn 11 after the second session had started.
Governing body the FIA said that Turn 11 had not been considered a "hot spot" for track limits so was not monitored as closely as other corners.
"We are building towards increased resources and improved systems and processes," a spokesperson said. "On this occasion, we got it wrong."
