Bahrain Grand Prix 2021: Max Verstappen starts new F1 season on pole, Lewis Hamilton finishes second

ByEurosport

Updated 27/03/2021 at 18:46 GMT

Max Verstappen will start the Bahrain Grand Prix on pole for the first time. Lewis Hamilton finished behind in second with Valtteri Bottas third. Hamilton improved on his final lap but he never looked likely to close the gap on Verstappen's healthy lead. Red Bull's Sergio Perez was surprisingly knocked out in Q2.

'I don't know where that time came from!' - Hamilton and Verstappen on qualifying

Red Bull's Max Verstappen will start the new Formula One season on pole for the first time with Lewis Hamilton on the front row, finishing in a time of 1:28.997.

Verstappen, who was fastest in all three practices, carried Red Bull's hopes for pole after Sergio Perez's surprise exit in Q2. He went ahead of Hamilton by 0.388 seconds in a stellar final lap.

Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas finished third with a time of +0.589 seconds.

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Charles Leclerc managed to put Ferrari on the second row of the grid, with AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly and McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo also performing strongly in the first qualifying session of the season.

It was the first time in the sport's V6 turbo hybrid era that began in 2013 that Mercedes, winners of the drivers' and constructors' championships for the past seven years, had not taken pole for the first race.

"We had a great testing week but there are no guarantees it translates to race weekends," Verstappen said afterwards.

"The car has been working really well and of course I'm happy with pole. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. We need to get a clean start and take it from there."

Red Bull's Sergio Perez was surprisingly knocked out of Q2 along with Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) and George Russell (Williams).

In Q1 Verstappen finished ahead of Yuku Tsunoda as Sebastian Vettel - on his Aston Martin debut - and Estevan Ocon (Alpine) were knocked out.