Charles Leclerc has taken provisional pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
| Row 1 | 1. Charles Leclerc 1’30.558 Ferrari |
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| 2. Max Verstappen 1’30.681 Red Bull |
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| Row 2 | 3. Carlos Sainz Jnr 1’30.687 Ferrari |
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| 4. Sergio Perez 1’30.921 Red Bull |
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| Row 3 | 5. Lewis Hamilton 1’31.238 Mercedes |
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| 6. Valtteri Bottas 1’31.560 Alfa Romeo |
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| Row 4 | 7. Kevin Magnussen 1’31.808 Haas |
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| 8. Fernando Alonso 1’32.195 Alpine |
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| Row 5 | 9. George Russell 1’32.216 Mercedes |
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| 10. Pierre Gasly 1’32.338 AlphaTauri |
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| Row 6 | 11. Esteban Ocon 1’31.782 Alpine |
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| 12. Mick Schumacher 1’31.998 Haas |
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| Row 7 | 13. Lando Norris 1’32.008 McLaren |
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| 14. Alexander Albon 1’32.664 Williams |
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| Row 8 | 15. Zhou Guanyu 1’33.543 Alfa Romeo |
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| 16. Yuki Tsunoda 1’32.750 AlphaTauri |
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| Row 9 | 17. Nico Hulkenberg 1’32.777 Aston Martin |
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| 18. Daniel Ricciardo 1’32.945 McLaren |
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| Row 10 | 19. Lance Stroll 1’33.032 Aston Martin |
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| 20. Nicholas Latifi 1’33.634 Williams |
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Biker56 (@biker56)
19th March 2022, 16:03
Well, so MB were sandbagging after all. No, wait….
Congratulations to SF and CL.
The Dolphins
19th March 2022, 16:07
Charles getting pole is the best gift 2022 could deliver after all the RB BS
Biker56 (@biker56)
19th March 2022, 16:12
Agreed. About time the Scuderia showed themselves, and the drivers are a class act.
G
19th March 2022, 16:13
The best gift was seeing Mercedes struggle. In fact, all the Merc powered teams don’t look great.
Roman
19th March 2022, 16:30
sry 4 u, if that is your main source of joy.
G
19th March 2022, 19:47
It’s not, I’m just winding up The Dolphins. I just want to see close racing and no single team dominance again. Merc will be up there again soon in what I hope will be a 3 way scrap.
hobo (@hobo)
19th March 2022, 16:15
@biker56 – Still waiting on the Merc long con. :)
Ben
19th March 2022, 16:04
And yesterday people were laughing at Hamilton being 0.6 off Russell in a practice session. Turns out he was also telling the truth at the gap to the cars in front…. It’s almost as if people just lie about him for fun.
The Dolphins
19th March 2022, 16:05
They’re still going to say George is #2 by contract by the way. Suits their agenda.
Biker56 (@biker56)
19th March 2022, 16:10
I suspect it’s projection. They lie to themselves and everyone they know, so think everybody else does too. Just pay no attention to them.
Mashiat (@mashiat)
19th March 2022, 16:30
@biker56 It’s expectation management.
petebaldwin (@)
19th March 2022, 16:13
Nah – if you lie to me over and over and over, don’t expect me to believe a word you say anymore.
If they knew they were a second a lap faster than the rest, they’d have said exactly the same thing about being 6 tenths slower.
Roman
19th March 2022, 16:22
maybe, they would have.
But even the most noob F1 fan was able to see in test and practise sessions that they have serious problems and are off the pace by quite some margin.
Ben
19th March 2022, 16:27
+1 Roman. You have to be seriously new to F1 to not understand Mercedes weren’t quick in testing.
Emma (@emma)
19th March 2022, 16:29
No, nothing about lies here even though you’ve been repeating the same thing over and over. More like some bizarre, inexplicable hatred for a team and driver probably because they’ve been superior to the rest of the field for years. Now, instead of people celebrating the new frontrunners, they’re happier celebrating and mocking that team. F1 fandom can be really weird.
Biker56 (@biker56)
19th March 2022, 16:48
+1
The Dolphins
19th March 2022, 16:04
Man those Mercs sure are sandbagging. Watch them lap everyone by the first pit stop tomorrow.
Olivier
19th March 2022, 16:31
Russell was doing serious sandbagging in qualifying. He ended up behind Bottas Alfa Romeo 😄
Biker56 (@biker56)
19th March 2022, 16:59
“Bono, I don’t thing these sandbags will last another lap.”
Le Jimster (@lejimster82)
19th March 2022, 17:27
I think they forgot how it works, they need to remove the sandbags before qualifying. They aren’t to be deployed as weapons like Mario kart in the race. :)
Bio
19th March 2022, 16:05
I guess they are back to cheating, huh Max?
Sviat
19th March 2022, 16:06
Alpine lost to Haas and Alfa Romeo. What were they doing for the last three years? Nothing? They claimed repeatedly that they have thrown all their resources on the 2022 car since 2019 at least. And they are 1.6 seconds off the pace in qualification.
They will never fight for anything than an occasional lucky podium or win unless they fire all those mediocre engineers that build mediocre cars.
f12007v (@f1fan-2000)
19th March 2022, 16:37
Must be the luck of alonso
Corsair
19th March 2022, 16:06
As has been said, the Mercedes clearly is having issues and they weren’t lying.
Not really surprised that RIC didn’t make it past Q1. Had COVID last week, did not do second test, missed out on most of FP2, McLaren having brake issues that he hadn’t got used to. Really, not a shock.
And not surprised to see NOR go out in Q2, either. The McLaren clearly has issues. Here’s hoping they get the issue resolved quickly. Not panic time, yet. Only the first race of the season. And it’s a long season.
Congrats to Ferrari, though. Nice!
And well done to HAAS as well.
Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
19th March 2022, 16:07
That car just looks so sluggish. It’s slow, it’s understeering. looking bad for McLaren so far
lexusreliability?
19th March 2022, 16:06
Great to see Ferrari at the front again. For a very long time I have been of the belief that its Leclerc and not Verstappen that will be the driver of his generation. Merc have problems but I think so long as they stay in touch they might still be able to have a say in the championship.
MnmRacerGRO
19th March 2022, 16:11
Leclerc is an excellent qualifier, but his racecraft and wheel to wheel skills leave a lot to be desired.
f12007v (@f1fan-2000)
19th March 2022, 16:07
Anyone who teams up with lewis just isnt allowed to compete with him
lexusreliability?
19th March 2022, 16:14
Lol you mean like Alonso who was #1 until Mclaren couldn’t justify it anymore coz of Hamilton’s pace? I’m sure you will be telling us next that Perez has equal opportunities at Red Bull.
Biker56 (@biker56)
19th March 2022, 16:15
And there we go.
Ben
19th March 2022, 16:25
Or he’s just better? What makes more sense.
1.Hamilton is the better driver.
2. Two different teams spent hundreds of millions of pounds and engineering hours over the last 16 years to purposely only support one driver. 6 different team mates (three of which are world champions) also agreed to be slower than Hamilton and not race against him (although many of them beat him from time to time)
If you genuinely believe the second one is true then you need help. My question to you would be why? Why would Mercedess do this? Why Hamilton? Why pay all that money for faster drivers in the first place? Why not just hire a Stroll or Latiffi? It just makes no sense at all.
Biker56 (@biker56)
19th March 2022, 16:42
It’s 1, for the reasons implied by 2. I often wonder why some have such extreme reactions to SLH.
All his teammates, for all his career, just about everyone involved in the business, rate him as the best, or among the best. Lucky we have a few commenters on here to point out that all of them are wrong, eh?
Sam (@undercut677)
19th March 2022, 16:07
90% of F1 fans were wrong about the sandbagging.
Emma (@emma)
19th March 2022, 16:30
No, just the dumb ones.
Jere (@jerejj)
19th March 2022, 16:07
Surprises in the mix. I expect Max on pole, although Mercedes was right, even the claim about AR.
The bottom five were unsurprising.
Jere (@jerejj)
19th March 2022, 17:31
‘expected.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
19th March 2022, 16:08
It’s very kind of Mercedes to be still sandbagging 🤣
On a more serious note, great laps by the top three. Leclerc seemed to struggle in S1, but made the difference in S2 and 3. Shame for Carlos and Max, but they made minor mistakes on their final runs which cost them pole.
Bring on the race!
RandomMallard
19th March 2022, 16:08
That was a very fun watch. Great to see Ferrari back at the front, as much as it pains me as a McLaren fan (not great from them today). And very, very close at the pointy end as well. Ferrari vs Red Bull looks like it could be a great battle.
Haas and Alfa must be very pleased. Welcome back K-Mag, and a good start for Bottas at Alfa as well (outqualifying Russell – whoops!). Concerning for Aston Martin though I must say.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
19th March 2022, 16:08
So guess the question we need to start asking going forward is how much of the performance is down to Ferrari doing a better job & how much is due to the advantages the FIA have given them with this silly non-F1 success penalty system we now have with the sliding scale wind tunnel/cfd/development time?
This is always the issue with such things, You need to start asking these questions & it just makes a mockery of the whole championship. Same reason I don’t watch the various GT/Sportscar championships which run balance of performance aimed to keep everyone artificially close.
It’s just not what the sport should be about!
petebaldwin (@)
19th March 2022, 16:16
@roger-ayles – If it’s all down to that, where are the teams who finished behind Ferrari? Shouldn’t they be on pole?
I think Ferrari have a decent car but their engine seems to be massively improved as evidenced by Alfa and Haas jumping up the standings this year.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
19th March 2022, 16:24
@roger-ayles
Now it’s Ferrari fault that Mercedes designers forgot to include the sidepod section in their drawings.
Cap SF (@dudebv)
19th March 2022, 16:37
And they were all drooling about how innovative the car looked, like a fighter jet.
(Brundle and that fanboy)
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
19th March 2022, 16:35
This only shows that the system works.
Robbie (@robbie)
19th March 2022, 16:37
@roger-ayles No I don’t think we need to ask this going forward as it is being too simplistic and is too hard to discern where Ferrari have found their improvements in terms of nailing down any one thing. They likely have taken a big step with their pu, and they seem to have been widely known to have thrown their resources into this car earlier than (at least) RBR and Merc who also needed to throw resources into last year’s car as the season went along. To claim this is down to a bit more wind tunnel time is grasping at straws. Imho there’s no way that’s been the difference for them. I also think that if a bit more tunnel time was such a game changer then F1 wouldn’t have gone down this route in allowing such an alleged big advantage. This is just a small measure that goes hand in hand with the bigger teams being capped, and the lesser teams getting more of the pie. And now it comes down to in-season development.
Hosford90
19th March 2022, 17:21
Roger Ayles with more ‘harrumph back in my day, this isn’t just sport’ grizzling. Shock horror.
JackySteeg (@jackysteeg)
19th March 2022, 16:08
K-Mag straight on form after a year away. For all the work Haas have done to prepare for this season, putting him in the second seat looks like the biggest upgrade of all.
Mark (@blueruck)
19th March 2022, 21:23
+1 – that was impressive, now they have to keep up as the development race takes off
Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
19th March 2022, 16:08
It’s looking pretty close at the front. should be good
baasbas
19th March 2022, 16:08
Sad for McLaren, 1-3 2-4 pairings looks good on the grid, I believe Mercedes will join in within a few races.. Great opening I hope
Oof.. Hulkenberg beating Stroll …
Magnussen nice job converting what is in the car. I feel they need to make the most of that at the start of the season because I feel the others will just develop faster.
Bottas pulling a move on Hamilton in the first corner?
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
19th March 2022, 16:37
I dont see Stroll getting better as a driver tbh. But he will retain his seat for the obvious reason. To be beaten by a super sub who drove the car for the first time on Friday says quite a lot.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
19th March 2022, 16:11
Well my prediction was not bad, I said this morning on here that I thought Merc were a little off the pace and I expected them to be outside of the top 3, but in the top 7/8.
I was a little out with Russell 9th but not bad. So I don’t think they were sandbagging. Just a bit over cautious. They’re not that far off the leaders.
Great to see Ferrari in top 3. Well done to Bottas and Magnussen.
Cap SF (@dudebv)
19th March 2022, 16:43
“They’re not that far off the leaders”
Hamilton was almost 0.7 off the pole, 0.2-0.3 is not that far.
Aleksandras
19th March 2022, 16:55
Ham’s Q2 time is around 0.4 off the pole, hence it could be argued that it still not far off the leaders
Roman
19th March 2022, 20:17
Q3 is what counts. In Q2 some dont need to give it everything or cancel their last push lap when they are through already. You cant judge Top 10 performance based on Q2 times.
Biker56 (@biker56)
19th March 2022, 16:14
HAAS! HAAS! HAAS!
Roman
19th March 2022, 16:15
Congrats Ferrari and Haas especially, but also RB.
Merc made some radical decisions and still have some problems, but will probably sort things out during the upcoming 3-6 weekends. Until then they wont compete for a podium (unless some aggressive yield-or-crash driver clears the field a bit ;-)).
Sad that McLaren is that far off the pace.
Ki Chi (@kichi-leung)
19th March 2022, 16:15
When was the last time both Haas got out of Q1? Or got into Q3? :))
Roman
19th March 2022, 16:25
2019 i think. Such a surprise.
Robbie (@robbie)
19th March 2022, 16:16
The problem for Ferrari though is they don’t have Max. I predict RBR for the better race pace and Max for the win.
baasbas
19th March 2022, 16:30
@robbie: What do you mean, Leclerc can bang wheels and shove cars off the track just as well
Robbie (@robbie)
19th March 2022, 16:39
baasbas Lol well when he has tried that against Max in the past, Max is the one that has prevailed.
baasbas
19th March 2022, 17:54
@robbie:
It was a light-hearted response on your (slight) knock on the Ferrari drivers. If it turned out to be a Russell vs Verstappen for the win, I guess you could be correct. There is a bigger difference in experience/time spent at the pointy end of the field. But Sainz and Leclerc are hardly new at this, they aren’t push-overs.
Now if you were to say with the grid that we have, there is an upcoming RBR vs Ferrari pit-wall battle where you think RBR will have the edge, I’d say you could be correct there as well…
Robbie (@robbie)
19th March 2022, 19:01
baasbas Lol good stuff;)
Biker56 (@biker56)
19th March 2022, 16:45
He’s not so good at the brake checking though.
Pete von F1 (@pete-von-f1)
19th March 2022, 16:19
My three thoughts :
1. Bottas – Russel = 1- 0
2. Hulk – Stroll = 1 – 0
3. K.Mag is back!
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
19th March 2022, 16:29
Plenty to talk about after the first qualifying season with the new cars. First, Ferrari has made a good improvement not only on the power unit front but also on driveability. This has helped both Haas and Alfa Romeo. Leclerc was always going to be quicker, but I had thought Sainz would be closer. Magnussen was a big surprise today. The fact that he could adapt so fast to these new cars shows the talent. I thought it would be close with Schumacher, who was in the team as they developed this car, but he was nowhere. This will be an interesting battle this year. I think calm heads are needed at Mercedes and Russel has to cut down on mistakes. Red Bull is thereabout with Max and Sergio’s struggle was once again evident. It was difficult to see Mclaren struggle so much. I thought they would be in the mix after Barcelona test. Albon now has taken up Russel’s role in Williams and it was good to see at least one car ahead of a faster Alfa Romeo. The driver cam showed the extent of the struggle of vibrations and wider tyres. Could not understand Alpine – where was the improvement?
Illusive (@illusive)
19th March 2022, 16:49
Ferrari looking good.
Jeorge (@jeorge)
19th March 2022, 16:53
On to tomorrow now
Steven Robertson (@emu55)
19th March 2022, 17:01
6 of the bottom 8 cars are Mercedes’ powered, which makes me think that Mercedes’ have messed that up too.
Paul Spencer (@pwspencer)
19th March 2022, 17:13
I’m about disappointed they weren’t stricter on track limits today.
Maybe it’s “white line” when it suits, not everywhere.
But great to see the red cars looking so competitive, and awesome drives by magnussen and bottas again today.
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
19th March 2022, 17:14
Good job by Ferrari.
But Magnussen and Hass are the history of the day.
MCG
19th March 2022, 19:01
At least George gave Lewis a tow to get him into a decent position. I didn’t see Lewis give George a tow.
Roman
19th March 2022, 20:14
One could know that Merc usually do that and change the order every other weekend. Not like RB with the designated wingman approach. And the tow maybe is worth 1-2 tenth, so it didnt change anything in this qualy.
Roman
19th March 2022, 20:14
reply to MCG
davidhunter13 (@davidhunter13)
19th March 2022, 22:29
Just caught up. HELL YES FERRARI AND LECLERC !!!
So good to see!
On a side note I’m not liking the new graphics. Simply less clear compared to what we’ve had last year. I hope enough people complain and they revert back.
kpcart
20th March 2022, 2:05
Haas 7th and 12th. If Mazepin was there, likely 12th and 19th