Round 1/24: Review of the Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying

Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing have begun their title defense with a commanding pole position at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The RB20 with the discarded Mercedes-inspired philosophy from 2022 for its car development, was expected to be the firm favorite after the testing last week, and Verstappen pocketed his 33rd pole position by edging out rivals Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari and George Russell in the Mercedes. It was tight at the front with the top four drivers managing a slow sector 3 in their final run, potentially not showing their best pace at the end.

Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez wrapped up the top five, with Sainz trading times throughout the qualifying session with his teammate, proving to be faster during the first half of the qualifying. Leclerc though managed to nip it back in his favor during the second half of the qualifying. Perez was almost half a second behind his teammate in the other Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton had a bad day in qualifying, as he finished P9 behind the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso and the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Nico Hulkenberg rounded off the top 10 with an impressive performance to get into Q3.

Q1:

The first qualifying of the year began with the two Ferraris coming out onto the track with a set of medium tires. Throughout the qualifying, Ferrari opted to conserve their softs at various stages potentially indicating their strategy for the race. The lap times were traded throughout the session between Sainz, Norris, and Max with some impressive laps occasionally from Nico Hulkenberg.

The Alpines meanwhile were deadlast throughout the session as they were reportedly struggling with excess weight on their car coupled with their known problem of lack of engine power compared to their competitors. At no moment did it seem that they would make it past Q1 and ended their session with P19 and P20 for Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly respectively. Kick Sauber Ferrari on the other hand finished P16 and P17 with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guyanu in Q1 narrowly missing out on a Q2 spot. The other driver to miss Q3 was Logan Sargeant who finished P18 while his teammate finished P13.

Q2:

At the start of Q2, it was pretty obvious that the two Haas, the two RB Honda RBPT, and Alex Albon in the lone Williams would exit the round as the top 5 teams were a step above in terms of pace. However, Nico Hulkenberg finished an impressive P6 to push the second Aston Martin of Lance Stroll out of the top 10 as the outlier amongst the top 5 teams. Yuki Tsunoda in the RB Honda finished P11 narrowly missing Q3 by 7 thousandths of a second.

The Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Russell struggled for a major portion of Q2 going into the drop zone during the tense final few minutes of Q2 but managed to finish P4 and P6 respectively. Daniel Ricciardo in the other RB Honda finished P14 ahead of Kevin Magnussen in P15 and behind Alex Albon in P13. Sainz having saved a set of softs in the second part of Q1 by opting not to go out for his second round, chose to do his first run in Q2 on used softs, which could very well be pivotal in the race.

Q3:

Leclerc set the fastest time of the entire qualifying session with a time of 1:29.165 in the final laps of Q2 as he ignored the team's orders to abort the lap. Interestingly though, he was the only driver in Q3 who didn’t improve his time compared to Q2. Alonso opted for only one run in Q3 as he finished sixth. The surprise of the session though was the performance of Hamilton as he was comfortably outclassed by his teammate who finished P3.

Verstappen on the other hand was comfortably ahead in both his runs in Q3. In his final run, he benefitted from a tow from the McLaren of Piastri at the start of his lap which possibly was the difference between him and Leclerc. With the impressive race pace of the RB20, it is to be seen if anyone can match Verstappen in the race or will he continue to extend his winning streak further this year.

References

1. Image Credits: www.formula1.com
2. Thumbnail Image Credits: www.motorsport.com

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