Leclerc’s first pole position – the amazing facts and stats

With a sublime performance under the lights in Sakhir, Charles Leclerc picked up his first F1 pole position in just his second race for Ferrari. And he made plenty of history along the way...

• At 21 years and 166 days old, Charles Leclerc is the second youngest polesitter in F1 history. His Ferrari team mate Sebastian Vettel retains the record, having been 21 years and 72 days old when he took pole at Italy 2008
• Leclerc is also the 33rd and youngest driver to take a pole position for Ferrari, eclipsing Jacky Ickx, who was 23 when he took pole at Germany 1968 for the Prancing Horse
• Leclerc is the 99th different driver in the history of the world championship to take a pole position, doing so in race number 999
• He’s also the first driver from Monaco to take pole, with the small Mediterranean Principality now one of just 21 countries to be able to boast an F1 polesitter

Bahrain Qualifying facts and stats

• With Leclerc’s pole and Vettel’s second place, Ferrari tie Williams and McLaren for the most front-row lockouts in F1 history (62)
• Valtteri Bottas was out-qualified by a team mate for the first time in seven visits to Bahrain, finishing fourth behind fellow Silver Arrow Lewis Hamilton
• Fifth on the grid represents Max Verstappen’s best ever start in Bahrain. The Red Bull driver had a previous best of sixth
• McLaren got two cars into Q3 for the first time since Malaysia 2017. P7 on the grid with Carlos Sainz represents the team’s highest grid slot since Fernando Alonso qualified P7 in Monaco last year
• Raikkonen recorded the first Q3 appearance for Alfa Romeo (or the team previously known as Sauber) since 2012
• Hulkenberg, fifth in FP2 and sixth in FP3, was eliminated in Q1 in Bahrain for the first time in his career. He’d started in the top eight for the last four years in Sakhir