Like an animal marking its territory, Charles Leclerc made his own mark on a patch of the Bahraini desert as the 21-year-old Monégasque scorched to pole position. His Formula 1 career may only be in its second year but the same calm and dignified spirit that impressed many during an impressive rookie year for Alfa Romeo has been carried over into his new career at Ferrari.
Leclerc finished nearly 0.3-seconds ahead of his more experienced and multiple championship winning teammate, Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton propped up 3rd place on the grid, just a few hundredths behind Vettel.
Valtteri Bottas secured 4th for Sunday’s race while the Honda-powered Red Bull was 0.5 seconds behind Bottas. Kevin Magnussen was 7th for Hass while McLaren made a good show in 7th with Carlos Sainz.
Romain Grosjean, Kimi Raikkonen and Lando Norris completed the top ten while Daniel Ricciardo just missed out on Q3, doing no better than 11th for his new team Renault.
Clearly, the talk of the 2019 Bahrain GP qualifying session will be about Charles Leclerc. F1 history has been made and it will be written. But let’s not get too sentimental, anything can happen in the race.
Or it could just be boring. Mercedes will have the better race pace. The single-lap pace Ferrari enjoyed today will be an advantage not to be enjoyed during a tough race distance.
As for Leclerc, this day marks the changing of the guard as a new generation of F1 drivers slowly begin to replace the previous generation.
Just as Hamilton and Vettel vanquished and eventually replaced their peers Leclerc’s pole position marks yet another transition. But not yet… not yet…
2019 Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying Results:
| Pos | No | Driver | Car | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:28.495 | 1:28.046 | 1:27.866 | 14 |
| 2 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:28.733 | 1:28.356 | 1:28.160 | 14 |
| 3 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:29.262 | 1:28.578 | 1:28.190 | 16 |
| 4 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:29.498 | 1:28.830 | 1:28.256 | 15 |
| 5 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda | 1:29.579 | 1:29.109 | 1:28.752 | 12 |
| 6 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | 1:29.532 | 1:29.017 | 1:28.757 | 15 |
| 7 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | McLaren Renault | 1:29.528 | 1:29.055 | 1:28.813 | 17 |
| 8 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas Ferrari | 1:29.688 | 1:29.249 | 1:29.015 | 17 |
| 9 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari | 1:29.959 | 1:29.471 | 1:29.022 | 18 |
| 10 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Renault | 1:29.381 | 1:29.258 | 1:29.043 | 18 |
| 11 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1:29.859 | 1:29.488 | 12 | |
| 12 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda | 1:29.514 | 1:29.513 | 15 | |
| 13 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Red Bull Racing Honda | 1:29.900 | 1:29.526 | 12 | |
| 14 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point BWT Mercedes | 1:29.893 | 1:29.756 | 12 | |
| 15 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda | 1:29.876 | 1:29.854 | 10 | |
| 16 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari | 1:30.026 | 6 | ||
| 17 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1:30.034 | 6 | ||
| 18 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point BWT Mercedes | 1:30.217 | 6 | ||
| 19 | 63 | George Russell | Williams Mercedes | 1:31.759 | 8 | ||
| 20 | 88 | Robert Kubica | Williams Mercedes | 1:31.799 | 8 |
Q1 107% time – 1:34.689
Note – Grosjean penalised three grid places for impeding Norris during qualifying.
