The first Qualifying of the season took place under the lights in Bahrain. Let’s find out who started the season on top.
Q1
In Qualifying 1: Logan Sargeant, Kevin Magnussen, Oscar Piastri, Nyck de Vries and Pierre Gasly were the five slowest drivers. Logan Sargeant put in an impressive showing and he was only eliminated from Qualifying because he did his lap after Lando Norris’ (they both did identical times). Kevin Magnussen really struggled as he was a long way away from his teammate and the same can be said for Oscar Piastri who didn’t start his Formula 1 career the way that he would’ve wanted. Nyck de Vries also had a stinker; he was over 7 tenths slower than his teammate in this session whilst Pierre Gasly got off to the worst possible start for Alpine. Carlos Sainz topped the session ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell. Interesting!
Q2
In Qualifying 2: Lando Norris, Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu, Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon all failed to make it into the top 10 shootout. Lando was lucky to get out of Q1, but he did a solid job to get his car up to P11. Both Alfa Romeo’s did a decent job with Valtteri Bottas outqualifying teammate Zhou Guanyu by just 3 hundredths of a second whilst Yuki Tsunoda can be pleased with his efforts to get into the second part of Qualifying. Alex Albon did a really good job getting into Q2, but he’ll be disappointed that he didn’t get a lap together in Q2. Charles Leclerc topped Q2 for Ferrari ahead of Max Verstappen who was just ahead of the Mercedes drivers and Carlos Sainz.
Q3
In Qualifying 3, Max Verstappen pulled out a 1:29.708 to take the first Pole position of 2023. Max stepped it up a gear in Q3 and he was just under a tenth and a half quicker than his teammate Sergio Perez who can be pretty happy with his efforts. Ferrari locked out the second row with Charles Leclerc coming ahead of Carlos Sainz whilst Fernando Alonso got his Aston Martin into the top 5. Even though he might be slightly disappointed with this result, there’s no denying that Aston Martin have done an incredible job to get their car this high up. George Russell out-qualified Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes just fell away from the top two teams whilst Lance Stroll can be very happy with 8th in Qualifying given he didn’t run in Pre-Season Testing last week. Esteban Ocon got the best possible result for Alpine today whilst Nico Hulkenberg bagged a Q3 appearance for Haas in his return to the sport.
Starting Grid for the Bahrain Grand Prix and my Qualifying Grades
Max Verstappen: 10
Sergio Perez: 9
Charles Leclerc: 9
Carlos Sainz: 8
Fernando Alonso: 9
George Russell: 8
Lewis Hamilton: 7
Lance Stroll: 8
Esteban Ocon: 9
Nico Hulkenberg: 8
Lando Norris: 6
Valtteri Bottas: 7
Zhou Guanyu: 6
Yuki Tsunoda: 6
Alex Albon: 7
Logan Sargeant: 5
Kevin Magnussen: 2
Oscar Piastri: 1
Nyck de Vries: 1
Pierre Gasly: 1
My Predictions for the Bahrain Grand Prix
Max Verstappen
Sergio Perez
George Russell
Charles Leclerc
Fernando Alonso
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