Sebastian Vettel on pole for Bahrain GP, Lewis Hamilton ninth

By Andrew BensonChief F1 writer in Bahrain

Last updated on 7 April 2018.From the section Formula 184

Sebastian Vettel will head an all-Ferrari front row at the Bahrain Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton will start ninth after a grid penalty.

Hamilton qualified fourth behind Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and his team-mate Valtteri Bottas but has a five-place drop for an unauthorised gearbox change.

The star of qualifying was arguably Pierre Gasly in the Toro Rosso, who qualified sixth behind Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.

Gasly's performance was embarrassing for McLaren, who are down in 13th and 14th.

Ferrari on fire

Ferrari have looked to have an edge on Mercedes all weekend, Hamilton and Bottas battling inconsistent handling on the stop-start Sakhir circuit in the desert south of the Bahraini capital Manama.

Mercedes got closer in qualifying than they looked like they might at one point but Vettel was still 0.166 seconds quicker than the fastest Mercedes of Bottas.

Raikkonen had looked to be faster than Vettel until qualifying but the four-time champion pulled it out when it mattered.

A mistake at the last corner on his first run in the top 10 shoot-out left Vettel second but a blistering final lap gave him pole ahead of Raikkonen by 0.143secs.

"It was quite intense," Vettel said. "First run in Q3 I was very happy and then I tossed it away last corner. Really happy I got the second run and got it clean. The car was excellent all weekend so far."

Why was Hamilton slow?

Hamilton knew before coming to Bahrain that he would have a grid penalty and that his job in qualifying was to minimise the damage to his hopes in the race.

But he could only manage fourth, failing to improve his time on his final lap and leapfrogged by Bottas.

From ninth on the grid, he faces a long, hard race trying to get on to the podium.

But he has been helped by a mistake by Max Verstappen, who crashed his Red Bull in first qualifying and will start 15th. That is one less fast car in Hamilton's way as he attempts to make ground.

"The Ferrari was quicker today," said Bottas. "We made some good progress through the weekend. We tried some things that didn't work which is why the gap was sometimes bigger. The set-up was right. Hopefully Lewis can come through the field."

Gasly humiliates McLaren

Gasly was just 1.371secs off pole in the Toro Rosso, a spectacular performance from the Frenchman, who is in his first full season in F1 after being drafted in towards the end of last season.

He headed Renault's Nico Hulkenberg, separated from his team-mate Carlos Sainz in 10th by Force India's Esteban Ocon. Gasly's team-mate Brendon Hartley qualified 11th.

That put both Toro Rosso ahead of both McLarens, an embarrassing result for the team at the home race of their main shareholders the Bahraini royal family.

McLaren ditched the Honda engine at the end of last season claiming it was holding them back, which leaves the team facing awkward questions about the quality of their car.

Alonso's team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne was 14th, 0.313secs off the Spaniard's pace.

Williams are in even more trouble - Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll were 18th and 20th respectively, a poor result for a once-great team that finished third in the championship as recently as 2015.

Pierre Gasly — Frenchman Gasly qualified his Toro Rosso much higher than expected in a performance reminiscent of Vettel's early career

Desert — Hamilton has spent to whole weekend trailing the Ferraris so far

Predict who will win in Bahrain

Predict who you think will finish in the top three at the Bahrain Grand Prix

F1 fans — 'We're off': Verstappen fans found little to cheer as the Dutchman crashed

.view-comments-button-wrapped-component {display: block !important;} .view-comments-button-wrapper {display: none !important;}

Comments

Join the conversation

These comments are now closed.

84 comments

Comment posted by User0116064281, at 23:57 7 Apr 2018
BBC, your "King of Bahrain" pie chart has some drivers allocated the same colour, thus making the chart impossible to discern.

Come on guys, this would be an embarrassing error on a GCSE coursework.
Comment posted by red leader, at 00:22 8 Apr 2018
Nice to see the excel pie charts getting a run out. Worth every penny of the licence fee...
Comment posted by Gone Fishing, at 23:15 7 Apr 2018
Good to see Ferraris can be the Mercs outright, without luck for once!

Also BBC, have a look at your "King of Bahrain" chart and tell me whats wrong with it?
Comment posted by User0005640312, at 08:33 8 Apr 2018
@52.

You’re absolutely clueless and couldn’t find a point on a sewing pin!

Hamilton is driving a German car. Vettel drives an Italian car. Both are excellent drivers, but no one is forced to support either because of their birthplace. Get over it, it’s an international sport and people can be fans of any driver.

Your link to Brexit is not even a straw man. It’s an illogical fallacy.
Comment posted by Nico Rosberg, at 22:40 7 Apr 2018
so.... 6 hours later and now we can comment? pretty epic qualifying imo and another reason to leave qualifying as it is because its one of the only things in F1 that does not need tinkering.
Comment posted by gpfan, at 22:40 7 Apr 2018
Good for Seb! Well done.
Comment posted by frankslad, at 02:05 8 Apr 2018
I'm an F1 fan - but look at this post - it's been open how long? generated 30 comments - and about what?
Who comes where in qualifying! Penalties etc etc.
F1 is dying! - when will we have an HYS about how many overtakes we had in an exiting race? Answer - under the current setup - NEVER!
Comment posted by soteraze, at 08:22 8 Apr 2018
Where was Hamilton today, only 4th best. Looks like party mode wasn't enough to get him pole today. Vettel is still the one to beat , so much for the young pretender Verstappen. two mistskes in two races.
Comment posted by Stephen Taylor, at 23:32 7 Apr 2018
What were Williams thinking when thought pairing Sirotkin and Stroll together was a good idea ? Paddy Lowe apparently can't fathom why Williams are so slow . Well I think I can answer that one quite easily Paddy it's because your drivers are very substandard - might be soon time to promote a certain Mr Kubica to a race drive - he can't do any worse than Lance and Sergey ? Leclerc average atm.
Comment posted by MAV, at 09:27 8 Apr 2018
If Hamilton had got this pole position the title would have read "amazing Hamilton secures incredible pole" but now just reads Vettel on pole.
Comment posted by at1, at 22:41 7 Apr 2018
Ferrari fan but don't want to see Hamilton down in 9th want to see the best guys all at the front and a win won fair and square
Comment posted by Big AL, at 22:58 7 Apr 2018
Congrats to Seb, job done! Tomorrow is another day but Lewis will have to work hard for a podium place. With his pedigree its not impossible. Good luck and lets us hope for a race, that everyone wants to see!
Comment posted by Phil, at 09:46 8 Apr 2018
Agreed. But as we all have known for a long time, Benson is LH fanboy no1.
Comment posted by Angryenglishman, at 23:14 7 Apr 2018
F1 IS A JOKE... you are supposed to race against other cars, but you can’t use too much fuel, or wear your tyres out too quickly or damage your gearbox or your engine etc etc etc .....it’s like watching a game of football where the ref has to instantly ref card any player that’s breaks into a sweat!!!!
Comment posted by Donnalee, at 05:00 8 Apr 2018
Reply to 31: There was never "overtaking" in the pit lane under the VSC". Vettel was 12 seconds ahead of Hamilton going into the pits. He came out 1 second ahead. Whether it's F1, Le Mans or any type of racing. If you pit the lap before the safety car, and your opponent pits immediately after the safety car, you lose out big. Luck goes around and comes around.
Comment posted by AndyB, at 01:55 8 Apr 2018
The way things are going with F1 penalties, regulations and gamesmanship (overtaking in the pit lane under vsc) , all that's missing now is a set of dice and board game rules like Totopoly where cars get shuffled to the back or front of the race with no relationship to the cars' or drivers' performance.
Comment posted by duncs tv, at 10:17 8 Apr 2018
Please stop it with the pie charts that add absolutely nothing to the article. Embarrassingly bad
Comment posted by Donnalee, at 05:09 8 Apr 2018
reply to 35. Michael: "Well the only way Vettel is going to beat Hamilton to the title is if these unlucky scenarios keep happening"

You do know had Vettel not have a blown tire last year at Silverstone, an unlucky Safety car at China, disastrous Singapore, and failed spark plug at Japan... Hamilton wouldn't have won the title. Yet we just discredit others if Hamilton loses...
Comment posted by Rob T, at 08:28 8 Apr 2018
Seriously, who draws the pie charts??! Hamilton and Rosberg both grey, Schumi and Vettel both red? Can’t tell who has more!
Comment posted by Bacaruda, at 23:11 7 Apr 2018
@11 I´m far from a fan of McLaren but they got royally shafted by Honda for 3 whole seasons. Which is a death sentence in F1. For the last 3 years the Honda engine had no power or reliability and McLaren couldn´t begin to compete.

It would be ironic if the Honda engine now turns good, but McLaren had to change. They should be doing better, but early days yet. Gasly looks another RB star!

Accessibility links