Verstappen takes pole with Alonso on 3rd row: 2023 Bahrain GP qualifying

“The strength of the car has been long runs with very low [tyre] degradation,” Alonso told Sky. “Tomorrow, starting P5, we aim to fight for a podium.”

The double world champion declared himself “extremely happy” at the outcome, saying that he thought it would take all season for Aston Martin to reach this point and that pole was too optimistic.

Mercedes was happier with its performance after it struggled in practice, George Russell — sixth on the grid ahead of Lewis Hamilton — said the changes for qualifying had “exceeded expectations” and that the car was nice to drive.

Esteban Ocon was ninth and Nico Hülkenberg rounded out the top ten on his return to Formula 1.

“I was positively surprised being on pole after the troubles we had in practice,” said Verstappen.

He may be confident of building a lead in tomorrow’s race if Leclerc is to be believed: the Ferrari driver is apprehensive over race pace, saying practice runs suggested Red Bull had an advantage.

He revealed that he had traded the chance of a better grid slot for fresher tyres by getting out of his car early and missing the chance for a final run. “There wasn’t any issue,” said Leclerc. “I think we were in the fight for pole, which was a good surprise. We managed to find that pace for the quali lap.”

His session ended more positively than it started: bodywork falling off the front wing of Leclerc’s Ferrari caused an early red flag to retrieve the carbon fibre fragments.

McLaren played no part in the final shootout, after Oscar Piastri was knocked out in Q1 of his first F1 qualifying session and Lando Norris was pushed out of the top ten in the final seconds of Q2.

In truth, he was fortunate to make it to the second stage of the session after Logan Sargeant matched his Q1 time. The Williams rookie was the fastest to be eliminated, classified behind Norris having set his time after the McLaren driver.

Team-mate Alex Albon exited in Q2 after damage sent his handling awry. He was joined by both Alfa Romeos and Yuki Tsunoda.

None of the three F1 rookies made it out of Q1 in a tight session where no driver was more than 1.2sec off the fastest time set by Sainz.

Nyck de Vries joined Piastri and Sargeant in the elimination zone, along with Pierre Gasly and Kevin Magnussen.

Dodging elimination in both Q1 and Q2 was Lance Stroll whose wrist injury had affected him in practice. His lap time was cancelled for exceeding track limits in the first stage, then he missed the weighbridge in the second and had to be wheeled back down the pitlane, costing valuable time.

He was the final driver on track in Q2, but was fast enough to move into the top 10 and knock Norris out. Eighth place on the grid will give him an opportunity to explore just how much pace the Aston Martin has.

2022 Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying results