Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying: It’s a FERRARI front row

Qualifying for the 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix has resulted in a Front row for Ferrari, with Sebastian Vettel on pole. Bottas starts third for Mercedes, but Hamilton will start in ninth place after a penalty.

Bahrain is a power circuit, so you might have expected the Mercedes cars of Hamilton and Bottas to dominate qualifying. But they didn’t, and instead Ferrari showed what they could do with a pole position for Sebastian Vettel and a second place start for Kimmi Raikkonen.

Hamilton came to Bahrain knowing he was in for a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, so he needed to be on his game – with a perfect car – to minimise the damage and give himself the best chance in the race.

But as it worked out neither of the Mercedes cars could get the better of a strong Ferrari, and team-mate Bottas jumped Hamilton in Q3 to take third place, leaving Hamilton languishing back in ninth place on the grid for tomorrow’s race from his fourth place qualifying. Which could make things interesting.

Behind the Ferraris and Mercedes it’s Daniel Ricciardo for Red Bull, but team-mate Max Verstappen crashed out in Q1 and will start the race in 15th. So who grabbed the place you’d have expected Verstappen to fill in the race? None other than Gasly in the Toro Rosso, who was just 1.371 seconds behind the pole of Vettel.

It was an impressive performance by Gasly, made more interesting by the fact that Toro Rosso is running with the Honda engine McLaren unceremoniously dumped for 2018. Not only has Gasly managed a fifth place start for Toro Rosso tomorrow, but team-mate Hartley will start in 10th, which means both Honda-engined Toro Rossos will start higher up the grid than the McLarens with their Renault power.

Sadly, Williams were also-rans in qualifying, with Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll starting tomorrow’s race in 18th and 20th.