Bahrain GP Qualifying As It Happened
•First Qualifying session of 2021
•Verstappen fastest in all three practice sessions
•Pit Lane opens at 15:00 GMT
16:30
That will wrap us up for today. Our report on qualifying will be posted soon. Thanks for joining us!
16:24
Very funny moment after the interviews there, with Max Verstappen slapping a birthday cake in the face of David Coulthard, who is 50 today.
16:20
Big kudos to Charles Leclerc there, putting his Ferrari fourth on the grid.
16:17
What a lap that was from Max! A 1:28:997 with three purple sectors on his final run.
16:14
Third on the grid Valtteri Bottas: "The session this morning wasn't easy and we had a couple of issues. This evening was a bit better, but we're not quite where we want to be - hopefully we can improve a little for tomorrow."
16:12
Second placed Lewis Hamilton: "Congratulations to Max, so fast on that last lap! I absolutely gave it everything I had, but unfortunately it wasn't good enough. There's always more, but it was the best I could do, I got everything I could from the car."
16:10
Pole sitter Max Verstappen: "We had a great testing week but there are no guarantees it translates to race weekends. The car has been working really well and of course I'm happy with pole. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. We need to get a clean start and take it from there"
16:08
The top 10:
Verstappen, Hamilton, Bottas, Leclerc, Gasly, Ricciardo, Norris, Sainz, Alonso, Stroll.
16:05
Birthday Boy David Coulthard is with the top 3.
16:01
MAX VERSTAPPEN IS ON POLE FOR THE BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX!!!!
The Dutch Lion Roars into pole with a stunning lap to knock Lewis Hamilton off top spot!
16:00
Verstappen purple in sector 2
16:00
Hamilton purple in Sector 1
15:59
Here we go for the final flying laps!!!
15:57
The order with 3 mins to go:
VER, HAM, GAS, BOT, SAI. STR, RIC, NOR, LEC, ALO.
15:54
Game on for pole then, what a season long battle this could be! You get the feeling no-one is going to run away with the championship this year.
15:53
Not for long though! Verstappen takes it away from Hamilton by 23 thousandths of a second!
15:52
Hamilton takes provisional pole from Gasly.
15:51
Sebastian Vettel to Sky Sports F1: "I did get caught out [by the yellow flags]. I had a lot of margin after the first lap. I had a mistake in Turn 11 but the second lap had a few yellows."
15:49
They are back out for Q3!
15:44
Well well well.... Red Bull and Checo Perez took the gamble to try again on the medium tyres, and it backfired miserably for the Mexican.
15:42
OUT IN Q2:
Perez, Giovinazzi, Tsunoda, Raikkonen, Russell
15:41
Sergio Perez is OUT!!!
15:41
SAINZ GOES FASTEST!!!
15:40
Gasly goes 4th!! Very well done!
15:39
Here we go for the final laps of Q2!
15:38
Bottom 5 with 2 mins to go:
Giovinazzi, Raikkonen, Russell, Ricciardo, Perez
15:37
Russell goes 13th with his first lap of Q2 on used tyres.
15:36
Perez back out on mediums.
15:35
Sector Fastests: S1 Gasly, S2 Hamilton, S3 Hamilton.
15:34
Radio Sainz: It feels a bit windier now.
15:33
Perez and Ricciardo have both had their laps deleted for track extending.
15:31
Hamilton is fastest on the mediums, ahead of Bottas & Verstappen.
15:27
Here we go for Q2! Quite a few have gone out on the mediums.
15:25
Carlos Sainz has had engine issues with his Ferrari. He will be able to continue though. He slowed and that was another yellow flag which cost Vettel.
15:22
It looks like that yellow flag cost Vettel his lap.
15:21
OUT in Q1:
Ocon, Latifi, Vettel, Schumacher, Mazepin.
15:20
The yellow was for another Mazepin spin
15:20
VETTEL OUT IN Q1!!
15:19
Yellow Flag Sector 1
15:19
It is good! Russell goes 7th.
15:18
This looks good from George Russell
15:16
Bottom 5 with 2 mins to go:
Ocon, Latifi, Russell, Mazepin, Schumacher.
15:13
Four of the current top 5 are Honda powered. Wow! They have really made inroads during the winter.
15:11
Verstappen goes fastest by just over a tenth back to Yuki Tsunoda, who puts in an excellent lap in the AlphaTauri. Hamilton is third.
15:07
Mick Schumacher is the first man to set a lap, a 1:33:861
15:04
Mazepin has a spin at turn 14 but he is ok to continue.
15:00
We are underway!
14:57
Here is the track
14:47
A Formula 1 qualifying debut today for our three rookies on the dunes today. It is expected that Schumacher and Mazepin will be towards the back with Tsunoda in the middle of the pack.
14:43
Track limits are being enforced today only at turn 4, where Valtteri Bottas has had nine laps deleted already this weekend
14:40
Good afternoon and welcome to our live text commentary of today's qualifying session. Will Max Verstappen be able to continue his impressive weekend so far? We will find out in the next hour and a half.
