What the teams said – Qualifying in Bahrain

McLaren

McLaren were once again miles ahead of the field in FP3, setting up what looked like a two horse race for pole. Both made it to Q3 with ease, but chose to run used tyres at the start of the shootout despite having two fresh sets at their disposal. That didn’t upset Piastri’s rhythm, as he was quick on both his first and second runs to grab pole with relative ease. But Norris couldn’t follow suit, a mistake in Turn 1 costing him on his last run. He didn’t just miss out on pole, he wound up a lowly sixth – a surprising result considering how strong McLaren looked all weekend.

READ MORE: Piastri thrilled to ‘deliver when it mattered’ after securing pole position for 50th race start in Bahrain

Lando Norris, 6th, 1:30.267

"A disappointing day. The car’s been amazing, so thank you to the team for their hard work. I’ve just been struggling at times to put together the laps that counted, and this has cost me some positions in Qualifying today. However, we have strong race pace, and we’ll work hard overnight to prepare and look forward to tomorrow’s race, where we will fight to find our way back to the front."

Oscar Piastri, 1st, 1:29.841

"Pole! I’ve felt good out there pretty much all weekend. We’ve had good pace, and the car feels great, which is the most important thing. It’s a long race tomorrow, and lots can happen, but we’re starting in a strong position so I’m looking forward to it. There’s work to do tonight but I can’t thank the team enough for the car they’ve given me this weekend."

Andrea Stella, Team Principal

"As we expected, the times were much closer in Qualifying as everyone looked to maximise what they had when it mattered. Despite this, Oscar did a great job to get his second Grand Prix Pole position and the team's first in Bahrain. Lando is a little frustrated not to be on the front row, but he has strong race pace and there is plenty that can be achieved tomorrow, at a circuit where overtaking is possible. Conditions could be challenging with both temperature and wind playing big factors here, along with high degradation, so we will be preparing for all the complexities the race has to offer."

Mercedes

Antonelli hasn’t had to spend his time learning the track here, which means he’s instead had more laps of just chasing performance. That really showed, the teenager sailing through Qualifying alongside his team mate to make it to Q3. Once there Russell grabbed the limelight, bagging second on the grid and pushing Piastri surprisingly close considering how huge McLaren’s advantage had been in practice. Antonelli backed his team mate up with fourth, his best Qualifying performance of the season.

George Russell, 2nd, 1:30.009

“It was a really strong Q3. I wasn’t really feeling the strongest through Qualifying. I didn’t have the confidence and Q1 and Q2 were a real challenge. In Q3 I got back into my normal rhythm, put in some strong laps and I was really surprised to be so close to pole, ahead of one of the McLarens with Charles [Leclerc] up there too. Whilst we will ultimately start P3, it is still a good place to be for tomorrow. This weekend is completely different to last weekend [in Japan]. I was really disappointed with P5 there. I felt we had the potential to qualify much higher up the order but this weekend I wasn’t expecting to be fighting for the front row – I thought P3 was going to be the maximum we could achieve today and we may have been down in P7 as the gaps have been so small. I don’t expect it to be a straightforward race tomorrow. I think Oscar [Piastri] is going to be very fast. The McLarens seem to be a long way ahead of the field when it comes to managing their tyres and we know that this will be key for tomorrow’s race. Let’s see what Sunday brings.”

Kimi Antonelli, 4th, 1:30.213

“I made a mistake on lap one in Q3 and that put me on the back foot as I didn’t have a lap on the board. There was plenty of pressure to deliver on lap two, therefore. It wasn’t easy but I’m happy that I put together a decent lap. I made a few mistakes here and there across the session, but overall, it’s still my highest grid position of the season despite the post-session penalty and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. My confidence is continuing to build but I’m still learning. This is another good step forward for me. I think the race will be a really tight fight. I think it’s going to be really hard to challenge the McLarens, but it’s definitely possible to fight the others. Tomorrow is a long race; our pace looks similar with others so getting a good start is going to be important and we’ll see what we can do from there.”

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

“Today’s Qualifying went much better than we expected. We were hopeful of fighting for best of the rest behind the McLarens, so to post the second and fourth fastest times was pleasing. There is also plenty of learnings we can take from today. In the daytime heat of FP3, we were looking a long way adrift of the McLarens. As we headed into the evening, and the track conditions cooled, we continued to close the gap. It was still warm out there, but it definitely came a little more towards us. Both drivers executed their final laps well and put themselves in a good position for tomorrow. Ultimately, following the post-session penalty, we will start P3 and P5 tomorrow. That still gives us a good chance of fighting for the podium. This is one of the most race pace-biased Grands Prix of the year so, if we have the pace in the car, both George and Kimi will hopefully be able to move forward.”

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

“The final practice session was very challenging from a balance point of view. The hot track was causing a lot of overheating and the wind had shifted which always takes a little time for the drivers to adjust to. Rather like the first practice on Friday, it was hard to take much from it and we moved back towards our setups from the end of yesterday to give us a better chance of going into Qualifying with a car that we understood. The grip in the evening session was much better and we were showing good pace. Both drivers put in good laps and it was encouraging to see that the gap to the McLarens was much smaller. Both felt they could have improved on their time slightly which is encouraging but good to see that the car is performing well at a track where we have struggled in the recent past.”

Ferrari

Hamilton’s struggles to get to grips with his upgraded car continued, as his pace was still a smidgen off that of his team mate. Both cars made it to Q3, but once there Hamilton really could not extract enough pace to challenge for the front rows and had to settle for P9. Leclerc though pulled a great lap out of the bag late on to grab third, finding himself in a Mercedes sandwich. He is still chasing a first podium of the season, and is well placed to finally grab a rostrum in 2025.

Lewis Hamilton, 9th, 1:30.772

"It wasn’t the day I was hoping for. The changes made overnight set us back in FP3, and while we applied further setup adjustments ahead of qualifying it just didn’t come together and I also didn’t find the performance window I needed. Credit to Charles, who did a great job out there. On a positive note, the race pace looked promising yesterday, and with a long race ahead, there’s still an opportunity to make progress. We’ll analyse the learnings overnight and come back stronger. A big thank you to the team for their continued efforts — we’ll keep pushing."

Charles Leclerc, 3rd, 1:30.175

"I didn't expect this result in qualifying, but I think we have worked very well in the last few weeks and this is the reward. We explored quite a few set-ups and I think I've found a direction that enables me to better extract the potential from the car. In Q3 the lap on scrubbed tyres wasn't great, but the feeling in the car was good and I knew I had the potential to do a much better lap although I didn’t expect it to be good enough for P3. It's good to see that we are making progress and I want to thank the team for the great job done on track and in Maranello to bring the upgrade to this race. Everything worked as expected and now we have to focus on the race. It won't be easy to keep this position but we will try and get a good result, as it would be a boost for the whole team."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

"Today’s three qualifying sessions were quite chaotic for everyone because these cars are very sensitive to the wind and to track temperature. On our side, I think we have made good progress and Charles was able to get everything out of the car to finish a strong P3. Lewis struggled on his last lap in Q3, after having been on the pace in the first two parts.

"For the race tomorrow, with Charles’ grid position, we have to be ambitious but I think Lewis also has the potential to come back and score good points. One unknown factor is that, so far, our long runs have been done in very hot conditions and in the race it will be much cooler. Charles has two sets of Mediums which could be an advantage as we have seen a lot more tyre degradation than at the first three races, run on tracks that had been completely or partially resurfaced. As for the new floor, I think we will have to wait until we run it also in Jeddah next week to have a clearer picture of what it brings us."

Alpine

Alpine have looked quick here and they carried that into Qualifying. Gasly made it to Q3 for the first time since Australia, and once there put in two brilliant laps. His second was good enough for fifth, missing it with the big teams and setting himself up for a tilt at some big points. Doohan was unlucky, missing out on a first Q3 by just 0.017s. But he starts 11th, and has had a very tidy weekend so is in a good place heading into tomorrow’s Grand Prix.

Pierre Gasly, 5th, 1:30.216

“That was a very good Qualifying and we definitely needed that. I’m very happy for the entire team with that result and performance. I must say, I was struggling a little bit at the start of the session. I was not feeling that comfortable in Q1 with low grip and a lot of sliding. We managed to unlock the potential from the tyres from Q2 onwards and really extracted more and more from them as the session went on. In the end, Q3, and that last lap, when I crossed the line, I knew it was a special one. Even so, to be fifth and so close to the top three and even pole position is a nice surprise. Great work all round by the whole team and now we must focus on tomorrow. We have some fast cars behind us, we will try to fight them, but we know our goal is to cross the line inside the points.”

Jack Doohan, 11th, 1:31.245

“I have mixed emotions after that session even if the majority of the evening was largely very positive. We will start tomorrow’s race in our best starting position of the year on my side. It was all coming together nicely throughout Q1 and most of Q2. I think I missed the window on tyre optimisation on the last run – a little too fast on my warm-up – over preparing them and we probably did not maximise the full potential on that last push lap. Still, plenty of positives there and things to understand for future. Tomorrow will be a long race, with high tyre degradation quite likely. Starting in eleventh means we are knocking on the door of the points so we will see what we can do on strategy and aim to convert today into a top 10 finish in the race.”

Dave Greenwood, Racing Director

“Overall it’s a great result in Qualifying for the team, which is a nice reward and testament to all the hard work behind the scenes in recent weeks at Enstone and Viry. As usual at this race, we go through extreme conditions across Practice sessions in the build up to Qualifying. As a result, we have to work hard to keep the car balanced and the tyres performing at their optimum grip, but I am happy to say as a team we have done a very good job on this. Pierre was strong in all sessions in Qualifying and hooked up the lap in Q3 to line-up fifth for the Grand Prix tomorrow. Jack was matching Pierre all the way and showed good speed also, but narrowly missed out on a spot in Q3. We’re in a good position for Sunday, but it will be a long and tricky race and we will look to convert strong starting positions into points for the team tomorrow. When you compare where the team was in Bahrain last year in P19 and P20 to today, it’s been a great effort by the whole team. But we know the points are handed out tomorrow and we’ll work hard to carry the positive momentum into the race tomorrow.”

Red Bull

Red Bull didn’t have an easy FP3, with Verstappen struggling with some of his set-up changes and complaining about his brakes while Tsunoda wound up propping up the field after a messy fast lap on the softs. The same continued in Qualifying, as the team found themselves really up against it. Verstappen aborted his first lap in Q1 and Tsunoda lost his time to track limits, leaving them both in the drop zone. They both pulled a lap out of the bag when it mattered, but had to do the same in Q2 as once again they had no times on the board as the clock ticked down. Somehow both cars made Q3, but their pace is very much missing in action in the high temperatures of Bahrain.

Max Verstappen, 7th, 1:30.423

“We did everything we could today but that was the maximum we could get in Qualifying. The whole weekend has been difficult. We struggled with the general balance of the car but also the brakes, with the red flag it was hard to get many clean laps in. My final lap was better, and I tried to extract the most out of it, but it was still not good enough compared to the others. There’s been very poor grip and we’ve played around with the setup but none of it really worked for us this weekend. There’s a lot to analyse and debrief to understand what we have tried this weekend and how we can attack next weekend. Historically high deg tracks have been good for us but tomorrow will be quite tough and we’re not sure what to expect at the moment. Naturally tomorrow I will do the best I can and we hope we can fight with the teams ahead."

Yuki Tsunoda, 10th, 1:31.303

“I have ticked the box of reaching Q3 and that is the first step for me. I think it was good execution, I had the red flag in Q1 with no time set and then I only had one set to make it through to Q3. I am reasonably happy, although P10 is not always the place as a driver that you want to be. It was a good recovery from practice, I will take it for sure, it could be a lot worse, considering the struggles I had in FP3. It is just hard to find the performance in this car and I am still learning how to do it best. It requires a lot of concentration to stay in the window this car needs to perform. It was not the easiest car today, you saw that with Max qualifying P7, which is unusual. We just have to, as a Team, make a step forward and I need to keep working hard. I think I have made some progress so far with the Team; it is step by step and only my second race with the Team. I didn’t get a great long run in practice but I have some confidence for tomorrow to move forward. At least Max and I are starting semi-close to each other in position so we may be able to do something different with the strategy. I will try to finish as close to him as possible. I want to score points and do lots of overtaking, that is my passion! I will do my best."

Christian Horner, Team Principal

"Yuki made some good progress from practice and step by step is finding more pace in the car. He did a good job to make Q3. Max struggled with balance and as he said, was fighting through most of Quali. But, the positive is, both cars made it into Q3. It feels like some time since we have been able to say that. We would like to be higher up the grid than P7 and P10 but as is the case this season, it’s close and we have an opportunity to race well from our starting positions tomorrow. However there is still a lot to understand from today, on both sides of the garage, so we will take a look and come back fighting tomorrow."

Williams

It was a mixed bag for Williams in Bahrain. They had a quick car, as shown by Sainz making it to Q3 for the second time this season – and out-qualifying his team mate for the first time. But while the Spaniard was making serene progress, the same couldn’t be said for Albon. He was put out into traffic for his final Q1 run, having to overtake a number of cars to get to the line in time. That left him with overworked tyres, and he then compounded the problem by locking up. Although he exited in Q1, he was promoted to P15 thanks to Hulkenberg’s lap time being deleted.

Alex Albon, 15th, 1:32.040

"It was messy today. We spent about three minutes waiting for all the other cars to go past us, stuck in the pit exit traffic jam, which equates to about 25-30 degrees of tyre temperature lost. When that happens, you end up going into Turn 1 with no grip. I had to overtake three cars on my outlap to make the flag. That’s just the way it is, unfortunately. Normally we are very good at getting out there, but today we slipped up. As for tomorrow, we have some of the strongest race pace in the midfield and at least you can overtake on this track! It’s going to be tricky to score points, but it is possible and I will give it everything to recover from what happened today."

Carlos Sainz, 8th, 1:30.680

"It seems like we made a step in the right direction, but we need to keep our heads down and carry on trying different things. I feel I still have margin for improvement, and I want to be higher than P8! Having said that, I’m happy with today and I definitely felt more in control, knowing where to push, where there is potential lap time, and staying disciplined with my driving. I’m confident in what we are doing, the speed is there, and I have a great team around me, so I just need to stick to my plan and continue taking the right steps, starting with the race tomorrow and trying to score some points!"

James Vowles, Team Principal

"It’s great to see Carlos up into Q3. He’s progressing every race weekend and there’s more to come from him.

"In terms of Alex, it was a disappointing session. As a team, we didn’t execute leaving the garage as cleanly as we did on Carlos’ side, and it resulted in Alex being at the back of the queue, unable to do the outlap he wanted. He has the pace, we’ve seen it every race weekend so far this year, and he is able to get the car into Q3. I have no doubt that would have been the same today.

"On the positive side, he is very quick, and it’s a track where we can overtake and make a difference strategically. I’m looking forward to working with him on the race tomorrow in order to get both cars up into the points."

Racing Bulls

Not to be for Racing Bulls, despite looking quick all weekend. Hadjar was the one impressing, and he looked right in the mix for the top 10. But he was just squeezed out in Q2 when the gaps were very, very tight. As for Lawson, he exited in Q1 after a DRS malfunction wrecked his last flying lap. His DRS mechanism shut halfway down the straight, costing him approximately half a second and a chance to make it to Q2.

Isack Hadjar, 12th, 1:31.271

"It wasn’t a great Qualifying for us, reaching Q3 was the goal today. We got really close and I feel like we could have gotten through, but I didn’t do a good enough lap. I had a tricky session out there and after the wind changed direction, I felt like the balance of the car went the wrong way and therefore struggled with it. I think I had a strong start in my last attempt and thought that was enough, but unfortunately, I was a bit too conservative towards the end of that lap. Tomorrow is going to be interesting, as it will be a two-stop race due to the high tyre degradation. A lot will happen, and if the pace is there, we can fight to get points.”

Liam Lawson, 17th, 1:32.165

“Q1 was okay up until I had a wheel spin out of the corner and opened DRS, which closed again on the way to Turn 11. Unsure exactly what happened; if it was something I did, I will definitely learn from it as it’s cost me a lot today, which is pretty frustrating. The car has been quick this weekend, for us it was just piecing it together in Quali. I think we had it in a pretty good window and the speed was there, it’s just a shame we had this issue. For tomorrow, it’s positive, we should be able to move forward. When you’re buried, it’s not ideal for tyres so it’s going to be quite tough, but I feel like we have the speed. The long run looks reasonably competitive, but everyone’s doing different things with tyres so let’s see tomorrow.”

Tim Goss, Chief Technical Officer

“We came into Qualifying with a strong performance from FP2 and FP3. Both drivers put in some good laps in the cooler conditions in FP2, but felt we had a little more to come from car balance and so small adjustments were made over night. The vast swing in track temperature and its effects of tyre grip and car balance is quite challenging for the engineers, and FP3 only gave limited feedback on our expectations for Qualifying. In Quali the balance was never perfect, affecting both our drivers (and others) from extracting everything available. With such a tight field it is essential to get everything right. Unfortunately, Liam had a DRS issue in Q2. In the tricky conditions, Liam picked up a little wheelspin on exit from Turn 10, resulting in a small throttle lift to keep the car under control causing DRS to automatically close which caused him to lose vital speed on the straight, and cost the place in Q2. Isack struggled slightly with the car balance, missing Q3 by a small margin. A session that could have been better, but we have confidence the car can compete, and we will do everything to demonstrate that tomorrow.”

Aston Martin

Aston Martin lacked pace yesterday, and they didn’t seem to find any big gains overnight. As such it was no surprise to see Stroll exit at the first time of asking for the second straight weekend. Alonso did make Q2 but could go no further, telling the team over the radio that he extracted the maximum from the car. Aston Martin will be hoping their race pace is better than their one-lap speed.

Fernando Alonso, 13th, 1:31.886

"We maximised our Qualifying tonight with P13 on the grid for tomorrow's race. For Q1 we used three sets of Softs and made it through. We were then quite limited with our options for Q2, and we didn’t have any new sets of Soft tyres left. We haven't had the pace all weekend, so I think it could be a challenging race for us tomorrow. We will keep fighting and hopefully be close to the points."

Lance Stroll, 19th, 1:32.283

"The set-up didn't feel quite right today, the ride height was way too high as it turned out, so it was difficult to turn the car around the corners. We always knew coming to Bahrain this wasn't going to be an easy weekend for us, so now we need to do some work and see if there's anything we can change ahead of tomorrow."

Mike Krack, Chief Trackside Officer

"We got things completely wrong with Lance's car today. The ride height set-up was incorrect, which created high levels of understeer, and cost him significant lap time and a chance to qualify higher up the grid. Fernando put in a solid performance on a set of Used Softs and will start from P13. We need to learn and reflect on this session and come back stronger tomorrow."

Haas

Bearman was the quicker of the two Haas drivers in final practice, and looked set for a strong Qualifying. But he found himself bundled out in Q1, unable to improve enough on his final flying run for a chastening exit. Ocon made Q2, but came out quite late in that segment after his seat needed some late adjustments. Once he did come out, he set off for a first push lap only to lose the rear and spin into the barriers. That ended his involvement, and it remains to be seen if he has damaged his gearbox and will be forced into a pit lane start for tomorrow.

Esteban Ocon, 14th, No time set in Q2

“I feel really sorry for the team, I messed up today. I think we were on for a decent qualifying but I made a mistake – that I don’t usually do in quali, and I pushed too hard at Turn 2 so got on the kerb, bottomed out and lost it at that corner. I’m disappointed with my performance today, and now we have to rebuild the car. I know the team is going to do an amazing job and tomorrow we’ll go racing.”

Oliver Bearman, 20th, 1:32.373

“It was just a messy lap; I’ve been struggling a lot all weekend with front-locking and that was the case again in qualifying. It’s really hard to gain confidence with those types of issues and unfortunately I didn’t put a good lap on the board. It’s strange because I felt good in FP2 despite the issues, but I think as I’ve tried to extract more performance out of the car, I’ve been limited more and more. When you don’t have confidence in a car like this, you can’t extract the lap time, so it’s annoying, but we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“It was a very disappointing qualifying; we didn’t maximise our performance. On Ollie’s side, in hindsight we should’ve done three runs in Q1 because he’s been having problems with braking, so he didn’t have the confidence to put the car on the limit straight away. That meant he left a lot to do on his second timed lap in Q1, and then he had a front lock-up going into Turn 8, so Ollie should’ve made it into Q2 easily as he has the pace. On Esteban’s side, in Q1 he did a very good job comfortably making it into Q2. On his out lap in Q2, it was a simple mistake. In terms of his input, it wasn’t a massive difference compared to what he was doing previously, but everything is on the limit and unfortunately that happened. It’s a shame as we definitely had the speed to be in Q3, but at least at this circuit you can overtake – so we’ll do our best to overtake as many cars as possible tomorrow.”

Kick Sauber

Kick Sauber’s pace has been up and down all weekend, but ultimately they couldn’t fight their way to the front of the midfield tonight. Bortoleto exited in Q1, but Hulkenberg initially made it to Q2. He seemed to qualify in 13th, a position he was unsurprisingly pleased with considering he missed a chunk of FP3 with an anti-stall problem. But his Q1 lap time was retrospectively deleted for track limits, dropping him down to 16th.

Nico Hulkenberg, 16th, 1:32.067

"Looking at our performance on track, before the call by the stewards, I think we had made the best of today’s conditions, and therefore I’m quite happy with the performance we put in. Going into qualifying, we knew our day could be tricky, because we had a less-than-ideal FP2 yesterday and our FP3 was cut short with a technical issue this morning. The conditions, with a strong breeze and changing grip levels, made the car challenging to drive at the limit: still, we had extracted the most out of the car, so it’s a pity to start from P16 after the Q2 efforts were deleted. It’ll be a big challenge to get into the fight for the points: we will need a good start and a good strategy, of course, and I have full confidence in everyone in the team that we’ll give it our best shot."

Gabriel Bortoleto, 18th, 1:32.186

"It's been a rather difficult qualifying for us today. The conditions changed quite a lot with the wind, and unfortunately, our car is very sensitive to these variables. I felt the lap I delivered was a good one, but we were lacking some grip, and ultimately, we haven't been able to progress past Q1. After a promising Friday, I was hoping to reach Q2 today, so it’s disappointing. Looking ahead to tomorrow, we know it will be a challenging race, but we’ll give everything we have. We’ll stay focused and try to get in the mix to move further up on the grid, maximising any opportunities that come our way."

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal

"I'm disappointed with the outcome of qualifying today. Unfortunately, Nico's fastest lap in Q1 [that had originally put him into Q2] was deleted after a very late review, meaning he'll start tomorrow's race from P16. That said, he did an incredible job on two sets of older tyres in Q2, which would have put him in P13. As for Gabriel, the balance of the car proved to be more difficult than expected, meaning he couldn’t extract a better lap time. So, while the outcome isn't what we wanted, we'll regroup overnight, learn from today, and focus on the race tomorrow."

Pirelli

Mario Isola, Motorsport Director

“We saw a far more uncertain and closely contested session than had been expected, proving just how unpredictable Formula 1 can be at times. From a race strategy perspective, the picture is actually more complex than it might seem at first glance.

“The first points is that all three tyre compounds can come into play and although a one-stop is clearly slower on paper, it cannot be ruled out completely, especially as eight drivers have one new set of each of the Hard and Medium. This group might consider starting on the Mediums and extending the first stint as much as possible, before switching to the Hards. If there is excessive degradation in the closing stages of the race then, switching to Softs, even new ones for those who did not take part in all three qualifying sessions, could offer a performance advantage, with no need for further stops.

“For a two-stop strategy, on paper the fastest route involves using two sets of Mediums and one of Hards, with pit stop windows between laps 14 and 20 and then again between laps 34 and 40. Those who want to make the most of having extra grip from the Soft for the start will need to pit earlier, between laps 10 and 16 to make the most of the potential undercut advantage, which is very effective at this track. Finally, there’s the option to use all three compounds, for example for those who only have one new set each of the Hard and Medium available.”