Charles Leclerc secures maiden pole for Ferrari in Bahrain GP

Bahrain GP

Leclerc secures maiden pole in Bahrain

The red cars absolutely dominant.

Matthew Scott

Saturday 30 March 2019 17:01 Updated: 08:41

Charles Leclerc became the second-youngest polesitter in Formula 1 history by taking Saturday honours at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel retains his record from Italy 2008, but will start this weekend's race behind his prodigious team-mate on the front row.

Leclerc led Ferrari's 62nd front-row lockout – equalling the all-time record shared by Williams and McLaren – in just his second race for the team, perhaps confirming his title intentions this year.

He did so in record-breaking manner, recording 1:27.886 to eclipse the previous benchmark set by Vettel in last year's qualifying in Sakhir.

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Lewis Hamilton leads Valtteri Bottas in an all-Mercedes second row, the Silver Arrows having closed a huge gap in Q3, albeit by not enough.

Max Verstappen was eight tenths off the pace in fifth, with Red Bull seemingly struggling to catch their rivals this weekend, Kevin Magnussen in sixth and Carlos Sainz in seventh within two tenths of the Red Bull.

Pierre Gasly dropped out of Q2, continuing a miserable weekend so far for the Dutchman's team-mate.

Romain Grosjean, Kimi Raikkonen and Lando Norris rounded out the top 10 in Q3, although the Haas man will take a three-place grid drop in the race for blocking the McLaren rookie in Q1, elevating Daniel Ricciardo int the top 10.

Q2

Ricciardo dropped out at this stage for the second race running, alongside Gasly, whose memories of his fourth-place finish here last year will be fading fast as he endures a tough time of it. The Toro Rossos and Sergio Perez also dropped out.

Q1

Nico Hulkenberg has qualified in the top 10 here in each of the previous four years but he was the big-name casualty in the first session, despite outpacing Verstappen in FP2 and FP3. Antonio Giovinazzi, Lance Stroll also dropped along with the Williams.