Lewis Hamilton fielded for Mercedes on his final run but started from a disappointing fifth place at the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton fielded for Mercedes on his final run but started from a disappointing fifth place at the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix
As Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc stunned Formula One champion Max Verstappen by taking a stunning pole position on Saturday for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton made the worst-case scenario for Mercedes by qualifying in fifth place. Best performance ever.
Verstappen was .015 seconds ahead of Leclerc in the split last time, but the Red Bull star lost the time. 123 seconds behind as his old teenage karting rival secured the 10th pole position of his career.
“It was a little hit-and-miss getting the balance together,” Verstappen said. “All of a sudden I lost a tenth of a second (of a second). Still, this is the first race of the season and we are competitive.”
This is the same track where the 24-year-old Leclerc from Monaco got his first pole, in his first season with Ferrari in 2019, he got a phone call from Prince Albert, a friend of Monaco.
“It’s looking good. The last two years have been difficult for the team,” said Leclerc. “We were quite hopeful that this was an opportunity to get back to the front.”
Hamilton fielded for Mercedes on his final run, but never looked like securing a record-extending 104th pole and starting from a disappointing fifth.
“The people who are ahead of us are on another level at the moment,” Hamilton said. “We’re not quick enough to win, but I told you already.”
He is third behind Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr.
“I hope we take another step next week and gradually we hunt those people down,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton’s former teammate Valtteri Bottas made a rough day for Mercedes by finishing sixth for his new team Alfa Romeo, while his replacement George Russell was only ninth after losing a second on a poor final run.
“Today was not a perfect day for me,” Russell said.
Mercedes looks to be a heavy car and seems to be struggling as the others unexpectedly improve.
“We are doing our best to resolve our global issues with the car at this time,” Russell said.
Haas uses a Ferrari engine and is looking good, with re-hired Kevin Magnussen showing that it was probably a mistake to fire him in 2020. The Danish driver starts seventh in his return race after replacing axed Russian driver Nikita Mazepin.
“I am speechless,” said Magnussen. “It’s really cool to be very concerned about this qualification to really see what it’s like, and then find out.”
Ferrari set the leading time in the final part of qualifying, known as Q3, with Mercedes nearly 1.5 seconds behind Ferrari. But already it was not looking good for Mercedes with Russell ninth in Q1 and Hamilton 10th.
It was even worse for McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, who has won eight races in his career.
The veteran Australian won the team’s only race last season, but could not even make it to the second half of qualifying, known as Q2. He starts in a disappointing 18th place while teammate Lando Norris, who got four podiums last year, hasn’t progressed to 13th.
McLaren has been struggling to optimize the car with one of the main issues being “porpoizing” – an F1 term where an aerodynamic problem causes cars to jump and pounce on the track.
Verstappen led Q2 from Sainz Jr. and Mercedes as Leclerc again overtook the top drivers.
“It was a good start for a new era,” Verstappen said. “It was a really close fight with Carlos and Charles.”
Earlier, Verstappen led the third and final practice ahead of Leclerc and Perez.
Verstappen posted the fastest time in all preseason testing and led second practice ahead of Ferrari, who also finished second and third in first practice.
After two practice runs on Friday, Hamilton had already ruled out a win despite being the F1 record holder with 103 GP wins.
Hamilton has won races where he has started from far below fifth, but there is little doubt his car can match his driving this time around.
For Ferrari, the upward curve continues.
A terrible 2020 campaign left Tifosi fans of Scuderia Ferrari in tears and the team torn apart. Last year was steady with a handful of podiums but no victories.
“We’ve done a great job as a team to find ourselves in a position to fight for better places,” Leclerc said. “From a driving point of view, it’s totally different from last year, I’ve tried so many different driving styles. We have more to come.”
Ferrari’s last F1 title belonged to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007.
Perhaps it could be in real contention for the first time since 2017, when four-time champion Sebastian Vettel led the championship halfway through, but under pressure from Hamilton, as he did in 2018.
Leclerc beat Vettel 2-1 to win in 2019 and even Hamilton to show his pace to most F1 Poles 7-5.
He will go on for his third race win on Sunday, with Verstappen just behind him and chasing victory No. 21.
At this track three years ago, Leclerc looked set for his first F1 victory, until a late engine failure saw him finish third as Hamilton’s victory.