Red Bull shows its cards and will come out ahead of the Ferraris, with the Asturian already among the favorites
MADRID, 4 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Dutch driver Max Verstappen (Red Bull) has signed the pole for the Bahrain Grand Prix race, the first round of the Formula 1 World Cup, after dominating the qualifying session ahead of his teammate Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) and the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, while the Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) will start fifth in an exciting weekend.
With a time of 1:29.708, the current world champion sealed his 20th pole position in a spectacular and extremely tight Q3, where he beat the Mexican ‘Checo’ Pérez by one tenth, who will accompany him on the front row of the grid. In the second will be the Monegasque Leclerc, who finished less than three tenths behind, and Carlos Sainz from Madrid, fourth at 0.446.
Alonso, who invited optimism after leading Free Practice 2 and 3, confirmed the good feelings and will start fifth, ahead of the Mercedes of the British George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, all in six tenths. Thus, up to four teams will have real options to fight for victory this Sunday.
In the decline of Sakhir, the Ferraris were one of the first to go out on the track, with a medium tire, and the car of the Monegasque Charles Leclerc waved the first red flag already in Q1 after losing some parts and getting stuck in the braking of curve 1.
The Red Bulls and the McLarens, who had already made their appearance on the soft compound, were the biggest losers due to the stoppage of the session, while Fernando Alonso, who dominated both second and third free practice, had not yet left the garage.
The action resumed on the track after a few minutes and soon the times began to fall. In his first lap launched, the Asturian surpassed the reference time of the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) with a time of 1:31.158, before the British George Russell and Leclerc also beat him.
However, it was Carlos Sainz who managed to rise to the top and close Q1 in first position (1:30.993), in which the Frenchman Pierre Gasly (Alpine), the Danish Kevin Magnussen (Haas), the Australian Oscar Piastri (McLaren), the Dutch Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri) and also the American Logan Sargeant (Williams), who was left out with the same time as the British Lando Norris (McLaren), who was saved for having done it earlier.
The single-seaters headed into Q2 on used tyres, and the Red Bulls were the first to drop Sainz’s mark. Leclerc, with a spectacular 1:30.282, took the lead on the time table ahead of ‘Mad Max’ and the two Mercedes, the big surprises in the classification.
With Sainz fifth behind his teammate and Alonso sixth behind three, Norris, the Finnish Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), the Chinese Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo), the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and the Thai Alex Albon ( Williams) said goodbye to the fight after failing to make the cut.
Everything would be decided in the final Q3, where nobody hid anything. The first to show his cards was Verstappen, who stopped the clock in 1: 29.897. Leclerc, one tenth behind, got out of the car after setting his time, and Sainz tried to improve his with a new soft tyre.
The defending champion still had time to improve himself (1:29.708), with ‘Checo’ Pérez very close, to one tenth. Leclerc and Sainz settled for third and fourth place, respectively, and Alonso confirmed his aspirations with a fifth starting position, just ahead of the Mercedes.