F1 Bahrain GP: Piastri takes pole, Norris and Verstappen outside of top five

Oscar Piastri has beaten George Russell to pole position for the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix, with Lando Norris and Max Verstappen down in sixth and seventh.

Piastri looked the quicker of the two McLaren cars from Q2 and, after being fastest on the first run of Q2, he then cemented his pole on the deciding run on a rapidly improving Bahrain international Circuit.

Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari ahead of the second Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, with Pierre Gasly taking a stunning fifth place on the grid for Alpine.

Norris looked set to challenge Piastri and Russell for the front row but a relatively poor final lap left him down in sixth. McLaren's main challenger Red Bull suffered a disappointing qualifying session with Verstappen only seventh.

Red Bull was under pressure from the start of qualifying as Verstappen went off the track on the final corner of his flyer, while team-mate Yuki Tsunoda also lost his lap for track-limits abuses. Verstappen reported "there's something really wrong with the car" but still managed to go through in third, while Tsunoda also advanced.

Verstappen also had a poor first lap in Q3 due to what he described as brake issues, while Piastri led early doors with a 1m30.233s, a tenth ahead of Russell and Norris. The trio was a second clear of the rest, led by Ferrari's Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

Antonelli and then Russell cycled through to take provisional pole on the final run, before Piastri restored McLaren's advantage with his second pole position in his F1 career.

Leclerc managed to split the Mercedes cars in third, with Antonelli rallying from having his first lap deleted for track limits by grabbing his best F1 qualifying result in fourth.

Gasly delighted Alpine with fifth on the grid, qualifying just 0.003s behind Antonelli and ahead of a disappointed Norris and Verstappen.

Pierre Gasly, Alpine

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Carlos Sainz was eighth for Williams, with Hamilton failing to qualify higher than eighth after also seeing his first lap deleted for track limits.

Tsunoda rounded out the top 10 due to not managing to put a clean lap together, but the Japanese driver's Q3 berth signals some progress on his side of the Red Bull garage.

Earlier, Q2 was quickly red flagged for a crash by Haas driver Esteban Ocon coming out of Turn 2.

Starting his flying lap, the Frenchman already suffered oversteer coming out of the corner, and then lost control as soon as his unsettled car crossed the exit kerbs, spinning into the left-hand side wall. Ocon reported he was OK, with the session resuming after an eight-minute delay.

Jack Doohan had looked set to join team-mate Gasly in Q3, but a weaker final sector left the Australian in 11th.

Behind Doohan, Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar was knocked out in 12th, with Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso also eliminated, the latter slower on his compromised Q2 lap than he had been in Q1.

Surprisingly, Alex Albon was out of Q1 for the first time this year, taking 16th in the Williams, as was Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson - who suffered a DRS issue.

They were joined in the drop zone by Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto, Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll and Haas' Oliver Bearman, who lost a shot at Q2 with a poor second sector, reporting problems with locking the front tyres.

Bahrain GP qualifying results

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Chassis	Engine	Time	Tyres	km/h
1	O. Piastri McLaren	81		McLaren	Mercedes	1'29.841		216.863
2	G. Russell Mercedes	63		Mercedes	Mercedes	+0.168 1'30.009		216.458
3	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		Ferrari	Ferrari	+0.334 1'30.175		216.059
4	A. Antonelli Mercedes	12		Mercedes	Mercedes	+0.372 1'30.213		215.968
5	P. Gasly Alpine	10		Alpine	Renault	+0.375 1'30.216		215.961
6	L. Norris McLaren	4		McLaren	Mercedes	+0.426 1'30.267		215.839
7	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		Red Bull	Red Bull	+0.582 1'30.423		215.467
8	C. Sainz Williams	55		Williams	Mercedes	+0.839 1'30.680		214.856
9	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44		Ferrari	Ferrari	+0.931 1'30.772		214.638
10	Y. Tsunoda Red Bull Racing	22		Red Bull	Red Bull	+1.462 1'31.303		213.390
11	J. Doohan Alpine	7		Alpine	Renault	+1.404 1'31.245		213.526
12	I. Hadjar RB	6		RB	Honda	+1.430 1'31.271		213.465
13	N. Hulkenberg Sauber	27		Sauber	Ferrari	+1.942 1'31.783		212.274
14	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		Aston Martin	Mercedes	+2.045 1'31.886		212.036
15	E. Ocon Haas F1 Team	31		Haas	Ferrari
16	A. Albon Williams	23		Williams	Mercedes	+2.199 1'32.040		211.681
17	L. Lawson RB	30		RB	Honda	+2.324 1'32.165		211.394
18	G. Bortoleto Sauber	5		Sauber	Ferrari	+2.345 1'32.186		211.346
19	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		Aston Martin	Mercedes	+2.442 1'32.283		211.124
20	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	87		Haas	Ferrari	+2.532 1'32.373		210.918
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