F1 Bahrain GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 and Qualifying

Bottas duly stays at the front of the train ahead of team-mate Hamilton at the start of the final timed laps. All or nothing now.

Verstappen takes pole position for the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix! Hamilton is second with Bottas in third.

Leclerc slots into fourth for Ferrari beating Gasly by two-tenths, followed by the McLaren pair as Ricciardo beats team-mate Norris. Sainz will start from P8, with Alonso P9 and Stroll P10.

Verstappen takes a sip of water and acts like it is nothing new. All casual. Bet he's buzzing inside.

Verstappen on his pole position: "It all worked out perfectly in qualifying and I'm delighted with pole position. Basically my first lap in Q3 wasn't amazing so I knew there was more in it. But I wasn't sure how much. Luckily, when it mattered, we could perform."

Hamilton on his second place in qualifying: "Congratulations to Max. I gave it everything I had but it wasn't enough. I got everything I could from the car. We did a good job coming back from testing and to improve like this."

Bottas on his P3: "Practice today wasn't easy, the balance was a bit better [in qualifying]. In Q3 I only had one set of tyres so it was tricky to compete with Lewis and Max."

Top 3 interviewer David Coulthard, who turns 50 today, is presented with a birthday cake by Verstappen but the pole-sitter slams the cake into Coulthard's face. Poor David - but who doesn't love a bit of slapstick cake-related humour.

Here's the full report on qualifying for the Bahrain GP: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/bahrain-gp-qualifying-shell/5938984/

So, that was fun. All the chat and favourite tagging pre-weekend has resulted in Verstappen taking pole position for Red Bull, but he has two Mercedes to fight on his own, with his new team-mate Perez starting outside of the top 10.

Strong showings also by Leclerc for Ferrari and Gasly for AlphaTauri, while there is plenty to contemplate for Vettel at Aston Martin. But, remember, this is just qualifying. The real fun begins tomorrow with the opening race of the 2021 F1 season.