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Red Bull’s Max Verstappen put in a crushing performance to take pole position for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
The world champion was 0.228 seconds faster than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in second place. Mercedes’ George Russell was third behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was just ninth, 0.225 seconds behind teammate Russell.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was fifth, behind Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Verstappen’s final margin was smaller than many in F1 expected it to be before the weekend: some had predicted the three-time champion would be 0.5 seconds behind the field.
However, his superiority was underlined by the fact that only Leclerc managed to beat on new tires the time that Verstappen had set on used tires in his first run in the final classification, and even then by just 0.014 seconds.
Given Red Bull’s traditional performance pattern, which sees its lead extend in races relative to qualifying, it looks a sure candidate for a first win of the season to continue a streak of consecutive race wins dating back to Japan at the end of last September. year.
And his performance bodes poorly for a competitive season at the front of the field, after Verstappen and Red Bull combined to produce the most dominant season in F1 history in 2023.
“It was a lot of fun,” Verstappen said. “The track has a lot of grip, but with the wind it was quite difficult to complete the entire lap and today it was the same.
“Really taking full advantage in Q3 was a bit difficult. It was a bit unexpected, but luckily in qualifying the car came to us and I felt a bit happier with the whole car.”
“We just needed to fine-tune a few things to get the balance right, but luckily we went in the right direction and were able to push a little harder in qualifying.
“The race will also be close. We look good and I’m sure we can have a strong race.”
Behind him, however, the field looks very even and competitive.
Leclerc was just 0.078 seconds faster than Russell, with Sainz just 0.100 seconds further back.
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