19:00 is the hour on the clock, but for us Formula One fans, we know it’s qualifying hour here at the Bahrain International Circuit. And I’m here to bring you, dear reader, my thoughts on the session as it unfolds. So let’s get right into it shall we?
Q1
Q1 began like any other, with Stroll being the first to have a lap time deleted. But now we focus on Max Verstappen, who’s pushing hard. Oh no! He’s locked up running into T14 and run off the circuit! Shame, that lap looked like a half-decent one. Immediately over the radio, he’s said “there is something really wrong with the car.” And soon after, Yuki Tsunoda in the sister car runs wide on the exit of T13 and through T14, meaning his lap was also deleted.
As it stands, Lando Norris is 3 tenths up on Mclaren teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri, which is not the trend we saw set in Free Practice 3. But as it’s only Q1, I’m not holding my breath for anything yet. Jack Doohan in the Alpine is really performing well after bouncing back from his scary practice crash at the Japanese Grand Prix last time out. But now, all eyes are on the hopeful Red Bull Racing cars, as they have to perform if they don’t want to line up 19th and 20th for tomorrows Grand Prix.
Meanwhile, Hadjar has just put his Toro Rosso in the top 5. What a performance from the Frenchman to move ahead of both his teammate and reigning world champion in the sister car. Another incredible lap from Jack Doohan moves his Alpine car up to third place! Incredible. Soon to be pipped down by Max Verstappen, as he goes third to displace Doohan. Tsunoda can only manage 12th. This could get dicey for the second driver. All 5 cars in the drop zone are currently on laps. Everybody on Tsunoda’s side of the garage are holding their breath.
Come the end of the session, and the bottom five knockouts are confirmed. Ollie Bearman wasn’t able to maintain his qualifying form from Japan, where he qualified 10th in the Haas. In 19th for the race is Lance Stroll of Aston Martin, who cannot match his teammate, and goes 4-0 down in the Qualifying head-to-head at the Silverstone-based team. 18th belongs to young Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto, who also cannot match his teammate, who also got through to Q2. 17th goes the way of Liam Lawson who really seems to be struggling again. After getting pretty heated at George Russell in practice 3, the disgraced Kiwi lines up in the bottom 5 again, and not for the first time this year. I 16th, is a disappointed Alexander Albon, who is beaten out my Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber.
Q2
At the start of Q2, while starting his first flying lap, Esteban Ocon lost the car on the exit of Turn 2 over the curbs, and was sent into a high-speed spinn and backwards into the wall on the outside of turn 3. This incident was seemingly very reminiscent of Nikita Mazepin’s Grand Prix debut back in the 2021 season. But is not the second Haas accident to occur at this part of the circuit. Romain Grosjean, also imfamously, had a fiery crash on the inside of T3 way back in 2020, which called for those who disliked the halo to adjust their views.
A new kind of incident I haven’t seen before has just occured. After the Race Director set a prospective restart time for the session, both Mercedes cars entered the fast lane of the pitlane, and waited by the red light, which was shown at the end of the pitlane. Since then, both the drivers of both cars and a team representative have been summoned to the Stewards to explain what happened. Mercedes Sporting Director, who is not Ron Meadows, but somebody drafted in to replace him for this weekend, has also been seen headed for the Steward’s office.
Now the session is back underway, and Verstappen has just aborted his Q2 lap at the final corner, seen diving for the pit-entry for something that is not yet known. Curious too, because the time he was setting was by no means a bad one. Oh here we go! Piastri goes 1 tenth faster than title rival Lando Norris to go to the top of the timings. Yuki Tsunoda also does well to get to 6th in the misguided RB21, though is immediately pipped to 7th by 7-time-world-champion Lewis Hamilton. What a lap from Pierre Gasly to stick his Alpine on the 2nd row, while the best Verstappen can manage is 7th, ahead of his teammate. Just the last few laps to complete, and hearts shatter across Spain as Alonso only goes fast enough for P14, and not enough to make the top ten. Though they immediately get excited again when they see Alonso’s compatriot Carlos Sainz has managed to squeeze his Williams car into the top 10. Incredible. Despite their best efforts though, neither Doohan nor Hulkenberg get through to the top 10 shootout.
So eliminated in Q2, we have Ocon, who’s reason should be obvious, Alonso in the Aston Martin, Hulkenberg in the Sauber, Hadjar the best-placed of the Toro Rosso cars and Doohan, who can’t quite match Gasly’s pace.
Q3
Here we go then folks. Q3, where all the sandbags should really be coming off. If any remain that is. The first laps from Verstappen are on an old, used set of softs, though I got confused. I saw a Red Bull leaving the pits and assumed it was Verstappen. No, it was Tsunoda. It’s been a while since we’ve seen both Red Bulls in Q3. But what a performance from Gasly and Sainz in their respective machinery as they force their way into the top 10, no doubt a great result for both teams.
The first lap times are in, and Tsunoda has just set a faster time than his teammate. What are we witnessing here? Ah, nevermind. Verstappen had a few issues on his lap, losing at least 4 tenths through turn 4. He blames his brakes and says “terrible. so bad.” Imaginative. Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli has just seen his ultra-competitive lap time deleted for track limits, though soon after, a message claiming Hulkenberg’s lap time, set at 19:18 local time, has been deleted. This references the lap he set at the end of Q1, and means Alexander Albon should’ve taken part in Q2. How has it taken 40 minutes to decide whether a lap is valid or not? This isn’t good enough. This isn’t good enough for the drivers, teams or the sport.
It’s final run time in Q3, and the first to be deleted is Lewis Hamilton in the Scuderia. The Brit ran wide on his exit of Turn 13 in a bid to use all available space to him, and consequently exceeded track limits. But all 10 cars are now on a brand new set of soft Pirelli P-Zeros.
Charles Leclerc stamps his authority best he can and settles himself in P2 at the end of the session, soon to be displaced by George Russell in the Mercedes, who takes P2 for himself, nearly 2 tenths down on Australian Oscar Piastri, who has been excellent all weekend so far. But what for George’s Mercedes Teammate? The young Italian has just placed himself 4th for the Grand Prix tomorrow, which also beats his career best of 6th, which was set last time out in Japan. Fifth goes the way of Pierre Gasly, in a surprising result for both himself and the Enstone team. Way down in 6th is where we find title-hopeful Lando Norris, some 4-and-a-half tenths down on his teammate. 7th is a disgruntled Max Verstappen. The Dutchman clearly unhappy with his RB21 car, a polar opposite to the elation he felt a week ago in Japan. Behind Max, comes the Williams of Carlos Sainz in a season-best of 8th place, 7 places higher than ‘robbed’ teammate Alexander Albon. 9th and 8 tenths off his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc is 3-time pole-sitter in Sakhir, Lewis Hamilton. And lining up 10th comes Yuki Tsunoda, who seems to be gelling better with the RB21 this weekend.
Full Classification Below:
And that’s all for qualifying. Let’s see what kind of excitement this race can bring.
Heroics Into Saint Devote 
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