Oscar Piastri powers to Bahrain F1 GP pole but Norris and Verstappen flounder

The expectations that McLaren would be strong for the Bahrain Grand Prix were proved in qualifying as Oscar Piastri claimed a powerful pole but their dominance was far from as complete as had been anticipated, with his teammate, the championship leader Lando Norris, managing only sixth.

Piastri was pushed hard by the Mercedes of George Russell who took a superb second place, with his teammate Kimi Antonelli equally impressive in fourth and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in third.

In the end the gap at the Sakhir Circuit over the single lap was not quite as cavernous as practice had suggested, with Russell only a tenth and a half back. However, the only driver who has still managed to stay in touch with McLaren in championship terms, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who won at the last round in Japan where conditions favoured him, was left floundering in the desert heat in seventh.

Red Bull made a set-up change going into qualifying but Verstappen was far from happy with the result and he was fighting it to try and wrestle out a decent lap, struggling with the understeer he dislikes. “There’s something really wrong with the car,” he told the team. Later he added that his brakes were “terrible”.

The McLaren also remains tricky in qualifying, a little unstable in the rear which can be testing over a single lap on low fuel but is at its best in race pace, where the ease with which it works the tyres lends it even more of an advantage.

Having been on top in every practice session and now qualifying, the prospects for how well it might run on Sunday are daunting indeed. The team having claimed their first pole in Bahrain are now in every position to convert it to their debut win at the circuit.

“I felt confident out there pretty much all weekend,” said Piastri. “The others caught up a little bit closer than what I wanted but I still delivered the laps when it mattered, which is the most important thing.”

Norris, however, was unsurprisingly disappointed with his final run, dropping crucial time in the first sector that has left him with a huge challenge on Sunday while his teammate and title rival can make hay with pole. “No idea what happened, just not quick enough,” a clearly unhappy Norris said.

The British driver has conceded recently that there are certain phases the car goes through with which he is not entirely comfortable, where he feels it is not responding as predictably as he would hope, which he and the team had been looking to address this weekend. It is clearly not quite there yet as Piastri very much had the edge at the Sakhir Circuit.

McLaren had expected to run well in Bahrain, where they had shown such promise in testing and in the heat and high degradation surface that suits the MCL39 so well, with the circuit offering very little grip to sit uncomfortably alongside its brutal tyre wear. This will induce variables on Sunday that will be a world away from the single-stop procession in Japan last weekend.

Qualifying will not decide all then but whether anyone can come close enough to Piastri to involve him in a fight is a different question altogether. Norris, in contrast, must hope at best to move through the field and claim a podium place.

Thus far Verstappen has clung on to McLaren with great determination and grit, currently trailing Norris by only one point in the championship, with Piastri 13 points down in third. But while the world champion pulled off a coup to win in Suzuka, the limitations of the Red Bull were once more exposed in Bahrain, indicating quite how far they have yet to go.

Equally, just as the McLaren might expect even more in the race, the Red Bull fell away in similar hot, high-degradation conditions at the opening two rounds in Australia and Japan and may well be similarly under the cosh on Sunday.

Verstappen will throw his all at it but the task may be one of once more grinding out as much as he can while he waits for the hoped-for improvements to come to their car.

On the opening runs in Q3, it was Piastri who set the initial pace for the opening laps, leading Russell by a tenth, with Norris in third, but expecting track evolution many of the runners were on used tyres for their first outings.

The final runs then were crucial and Russell put in a huge lap to claim provisional pole but as well as he had done, Piastri delivered with complete control to claim the top spot with a 1 minute 29.841-second lap.

Mercedes are under investigation for allowing their cars to leave the garage too early after a red flag but will more likely face a fine rather than a grid penalty for the drivers.

Pierre Gasly finished in fifth for Alpine, Carlos Sainz in eighth for Williams, Lewis Hamilton in ninth for Ferrari and Yuki Tsunoda in 10th for Red Bull.

Jack Doohan was in 11th for Alpine, Isack Hadjar in 12th for Racing Bulls, Nico Hülkenberg in 13th for Haas and Fernando Alonso in 14th for Aston Martin.

Esteban Ocon crashed out in Q2, going off exiting turn two and took a heavy shunt against the wall but was unharmed, finishing in 15th.

Alex Albon was in 15th for Williams, Liam Lawson in 16th for Racing Bulls, Gabriel Bortoleto in 17th for Sauber, Lance Stroll in 18th for Aston Martin and Oliver Bearman in 20th for Haas.