F1

Here's a look at the big talking points to come out of qualifying. Verstappen-Leclerc promises to be thrilling. Charles Leclerc's pole position in Bahrain was ...

"We thought it would be possible to get into Q3, but now seeing that in reality we got P6, this is still like a bit of a surprise - and I think it is for everyone," Bottas said. "Barcelona is more biased towards medium and high speed, this one is more biased towards slow speed corners and that's where we're struggling a lot. But until you actually do it you always have the doubts, and finally this season we managed to do a car that is back to where it deserves, which is to at least be in the mix for the top positions." "I had a whole year, basically 15 months trying to get used to the fact that Formula 1 wasn't going to be part of my life anymore. And now back in Q3 and hoping for points tomorrow, it's kind of crazy." This could be the fairytale story of the season. The Danish driver has always been a very strong qualifier and he clearly lost none of that in his year racing in other series. But dialling them out means applying the science, scrutiny and hard work; it is all physics, it's not mystics." That may not sound particularly impressive for a seven-time world champion, but given the performance of his new car it was the best he could hope for. Unlike previous years when Mercedes struggled during preseason testing, there was no quick fix to make the car competitive ahead of the first race this season. During practice, Leclerc and Verstappen looked closely matched over a single lap, but it was Red Bull who looked the most impressive over longer runs with heavy fuel. Charles Leclerc's pole position in Bahrain was Ferrari's first at the opening race of a year since 2007.

Charles Leclerc took the first pole position of the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship, ahead of reigning champion Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, ...

Rounding out the top 10 was AlphaTauri’s Gasly. Sainz had preliminary pole position ahead of Leclerc then Verstappen – the trio split by just 0.056s. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez missed out on the top 10 but was comfortably through to Q2 ahead of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso (P12) and Haas’s Mick Schumacher in P13 and nine-tenths off top spot. The second runs, however, saw Leclerc improve while Sainz failed to do so. Bottas’s late effort put him 10th – meaning the last time he missed Q3 was in Abu Dhabi 2016. Sainz made it to P2, within 0.030s off Verstappen, while Leclerc was third and 0.175s off the reigning champion. Lewis Hamilton took fifth while his former team mate Valtteri Bottas made it to a surprise sixth on the grid for Alfa Romeo. Magnussen pulled out another stunning effort for Haas, finishing seventh in Q2 but the Danish driver was then garage-bound by a hydraulic issue. Ferarri's Leclerc was fastest in Q1 but Red Bull's Verstappen hit back in Q2, making it to the top-10 shootout in one take. The Monegasque driver took a first pole position since the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and his second in Bahrain, with a time of 1m 30.556s. Verstappen was 0.123s off by the flag and Sainz ended up 0.129s back in P3. The stage was thus set for a face-off between the champion and the Scuderia in Q3. With AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly in P7, eighth-place Lando Norris (McLaren) was the highest-placed Mercedes-powered driver, beating the Mercedes duo of George Russell (P9) and Lewis Hamilton (P10).

Ferrari Formula 1's Charles Leclerc says he was surprised to beat Max Verstappen and Red Bull in Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying after beating the world ...

Tyre management will be important, especially with this increased weight this year, so we need to focus on that and hopefully have a good race tomorrow." "From the driving point, it's completely different compared to last year. I tried many different driving styles and still need to find the perfect one.

Full standings after Saturday's qualifying and what to expect on Sunday as the new F1 season gets underway.

“You want to be good in qualifying but make sure the car is working in the race, and it’s a bit different to some other tracks.” Fernando Alonso, eighth for Alpine, and Pierre Gasly, 10th in the AlphaTauri, make up the top 10 to ensure a tight battle should the Ferraris and Red Bulls disappear as expected. There are no other available mechanisms in the rules for amending the race classification.” Alfa Romeo and Haas were the big winners in midfield. McLaren, of whom so much was expected when Lando Norris lit up the first test in Barcelona, are heading in the opposite direction. The radical rule changes introduced this year have catapulted the red car back into the vanguard of the sport, providing Leclerc and Carlos Sainz with an opportunity to challenge for the world title. After all he set off from pole in this race a year ago and saw Hamilton take the chequered flag. “The last two years have been difficult for the team. “It has been a bit of a nightmare to drive,” he said. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff explained before qualifying the extent of the problems. Charles Leclerc starts the season-opening 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix on the front row ahead of defending world champion Max Verstappen. The following year they sank to sixth in the constructors’ championship with just three podium finishes, their worst return in 40 years.

Nicholas Latifi says Williams expected to be further behind the rest of the Formula 1 field than it was in practice on Friday in Bahrain after a difficult ...

There is one driving style on the car. “Obviously when it is tricky, it definitely has a certain driving style. “On that aspect, I think it’s positive, but still we’re not where we want to be as a team, and we know that we know the areas where we need to improve on the car, where the limitations are that are holding us back.”

The FIA will appoint a new Formula 1 sporting director to oversee the regulations in the wake of the Abu Dhabi controversy at the end of last season.

The sporting director role will be appointed as a position within the FIA, which serves as F1’s regulator, and will oversee the writing of the sporting and technical regulations. But to complete the new structure, the FIA report announced that “a new F1 sporting director will be recruited”, followed by a note saying “process finalised”. Both will enjoy greater support after the FIA acknowledged in the report that the duties of the race director had accumulated through the years.