Oscar Piastri has scored the second pole of the season ahead of shock front row starter George Russell after McLaren’s teammate Rand Norris unexpectedly flops in Bahrain Grampuri qualifying.
Contrary to pre-qualified expectations, Piastri and McLaren were made to work in Paul’s position, and the field was closed at MCL39 when day was night.
The interim pole for the Piastri Rook, but it was a percentage of truck improvements and four different drivers beat that time on the second lap, forcing the Australians to respond to the fifth to fifth to third cars on the line. However, he unflinched and delivered purple time in the last two sectors, grabbed the back top spot and set himself on Paul for his 50th Grand Prix start.
“I was confident all weekend,” he said. “I felt really comfortable with the car.
“In qualifying, the others were a little closer than I wanted, but they delivered the rap when it mattered. I can’t thank the team enough for the car they gave me.”
Russell doubled his doubts that Piastri could be challenged on Sunday, but after intense preliminary predictions, he was excited to reach just 0.168 from Paul.
“If anyone said we were within half a second of McLaren, we would have taken it because we thought it was a P3 on the grid, so I think it’s a bonus,” he said.
“As the session unfolded, we seemed to be getting faster and faster. Being a P2 is a great opportunity for tomorrow, but it’s going to be tough to compete with Oscar.”
However, Russell and teammate Kimi Antoneri were subsequently awarded a first-place grid penalty for a pit lane breach during the second quarter.
Charles Leclerc completed the top three despite a modest build-up in Ferrari qualifying. The team brought a massive upgrade to the car this weekend, and Leclerc said it hopes it is a sign of an upward trajectory.
“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting a P3,” he said. “I knew there would be some lap times in the third quarter, and I had to be patient and wait for the truck to come to us.
“I feel like I’ve found my way a little bit. I hope there’s more performance to extract from this car over the weekend.”
Mercedes rookie Antonelli, who was just 0.372s from his fourth pace, beat Super Pierre Gasly in fifth place with just 0.003s, both stabbed Pierre Gasly’s first lap on his second attempt.
Norris came in sixth on the second lap. He was third after his first attempt, but found just 0.129 on his follow-up lap after the slide infringed his first sector from the first turn, but his subsequent personal best second and third splits were more than 0.2 seconds behind Piastri anyway.
Max Verstappen was seventh in the Red Bull racing car, which the Dutch said had “really wrong” including “Just Therrible Brakes” throughout the session.
Carlos Sainz claimed Williams’ best qualifying results of the season in eighth place on the grid, while Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari and Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull completed the top 10.
Jack Doohan missed a Q3 shipment with a career-high 11th place in qualifying, just 0.017.
Isack Hadjar was No. 12th in the Racing Bulls despite his impressive top-10 practice pace, ahead of Nico Halkenberg on the 13th and Fernando Alonso on the 14th, the Spaniards left his team with radio and radio, 1.4 seconds off the Q2 pace.
Esteban Ocon came in 15th place after the car crashed out of Turn 2. Haas’s driver got an oversteer snap when he got on the throttle at the exit.
Now, completely from Ocon’s control, the car rotated backwards from the gravel, making violent contact with the barrier, forcing a short flag to collect the wreckage, and rescued the unharmed Frenchman.
Alex Albon came in 16th in the worst individual qualification results of the year. This is the first time a Thai driver has failed to reach the third quarter and the first time the team has eliminated a car in the first quarter.
However, Albon later benefited from Halkenberg and deleted his fastest first lap time midway through Q3. The Steward ditched Sauber Driver to 16th place and promoted the grid location to Alonso, Ocon and Arcon.
Liam Lawson took 17th place after the doctor closed itself on the final lap, sacrificing important linear velocity.
Gabriel Boltreto has Lance Stroll and Oliver Baerman in 18th place in the back row.
