Max Verstappen delivered the opening blow of the 2017 Formula 1 season by claiming the pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
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Bahrain GP Qualifying:
Max Verstappen, a two-time World Champion, won the pole position for the season-opening race tomorrow at the 5.412 km Bahrain International Circuit as the first qualifying session of the 2024 Formula One season came to a close this weekend in Bahrain.
Checo Perez started just +0.138s slower than Verstappen for Red Bull, who was able to secure the top row for the opening race of the season (1:29.708). Charles Leclerc will start in P3, and Carlos Sainz will start from position four tomorrow, with Ferrari drivers occupying the second row. The most seasoned driver on the grid, Fernando Alonso, qualified fifth fastest in the last round of qualifying. The Spaniard’s first year with his new squad, Aston Martin, is now.
Race Control stopped Qualifying 1 in the middle of the session after discovering debris on the course and raising red flags. As Q restarted, it was discovered that the debris was really Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari bodywork, which was later spotted being repaired in the pits. Carlos Sainz completed the lap with the quickest time, clocking in at 130.993 seconds, ahead of George Russell and Charles Leclerc. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, both driving Aston Martins, finished fourth and fifth in qualifying.
Qualifying Eliminated list :
First qualifying eliminated Logan Sargeant (Williams), Kevin Magnussen (Haas), Oscar Plastri (Mclaren), Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri), and Pierre Gasly (Alpine), who will now take the 16th to 20th spots on the grid, respectively. The three rookies are out of luck.
With a flying lap time of 1:30.282, Charles Leclerc was able to win P1 in second qualifying ahead of Max Verstappen in P2, who was +0.221s slower. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, both of Mercedes, finished third and fourth in Q2, with Carlos Sainz taking fifth. From sixth to tenth place, respectively, were Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez, Nico Hülkenberg, Esteban Ocon, and Lance Stroll. Lando Norris, Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu, Yuki Tsunoda, and Alex Albon, on the other hand, failed to qualify for Q3.
The two-time world champion outperformed Sergio Perez, and Red Bull secured the first row by a mere tenth of a second, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finishing third. Fernando Alonso, who had won two of the three practice sessions, finished fourth, ahead of Carlos Sainz in the second scarlet car. Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate George Russell qualified sixth, while Hamilton could only manage seventh. Toto Wolff later claimed Mercedes would abandon this season’s car philosophy in order to once again contend for the top spot.
Max Verstappen:
Mercedes will retire this year’s vehicle before a single race, according to Toto Wolff. Max Verstappen, the defending champion, continued where he left off to claim the pole position for Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez joined him in the front row. For Ferrari, Fernando Alonso will start in position five, while Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc will start third and fourth, respectively. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, though, will start just sixth and seventh, respectively, as the Mercedes drivers came in more than six-tenths of a second behind Verstappen.
A dejected Hamilton claimed on Friday that his team was on the “wrong track”, that he had slipped further behind his competitors, and that the Mercedes concept might not allow him to contend for a record-breaking ninth world championship. And amazingly, a day later, team owner Wolff agreed that the Silver Arrows, a function Object() { [native code] } that had previously ruled the sport, would have to give up the contentious zero-sidepod idea if they wanted to challenge once more.
