F1: Ferrari Locks Front Row; Hamilton To Start Bahrain GP In Ninth Place

Having taken the first win of the season, Scuderia Ferrari will be starting the Bahrain GP with a front row lockout. Sebastian Vettel took a scintillating pole at the Sakhir circuit completing the lap in 1m27.958s and was closely followed by teammate Kimi Raikkonen in second place with a gap of 0.143s. Meanwhile, Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas will be starting the Bahrain GP third, while Lewis Hamilton took the fourth place in qualifying. However, the reigning world champion will have to start the race ninth after receiving a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Running on supersoft tyres, Vettel claimed the pole position despite some close competition from temmate Raikkonen. The iceman dominated the first run in Q3 leading by 0.095s from Vettel, but could not improve his time in during the second run. The German, meanwhile ensured to show incredible pace during Q3 and was running on supersoft tyres to claim his 51st pole position, like much of the grid.

However, Hamilton was the only driver to use the slightly slower soft-compound tyres to set the time and will also start the race on softs, devising a different strategy. Bottas was the only other driver to run on softs during qualifying, and managed to outpace his teammate by just over a tenth of a second.

Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo was the fifth fastest driver in qualifying, almost two tenths slower than Hamilton, but will be starting the race in fourth place as Hamilton moves the order. For teammate Max Verstappen though, the racer was in for a crash during Q2 while running fourth and lost control on Turn 2 ending up in the barrier nose first. While he came out unscathed, the Dutch driver will have an uphill task to make it back in the top spots during the race.

Another impressive finish came from Pierre Gasly, who secured his best qualifying performance in F1 with sixth place. The Torro Rosso driver showed impressive pace, much to the relief of Honda and is set for his career best start in fifth place.

Coming in very close to Gasly was Kevin Magnussen of Haas Ferrari, securing seventh, while Renault's Nico Hulkenberg took eighth followed by Esteban Ocon of Force India finishing ninth. Carlos Sainz in the second Renault took the tenth spot on the grid.

Brendon Hartley in the second of the two Torro Rossos missed out on Q3 by less than tenth of a second, after making a mistake in the final corner during Q2, and left him in the 11th place. Force India Sergio Perez will be starting in 12th place, while McLaren drivers Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne will start 13th and 14th respectively after struggling for traction, far off from the impressive stint in the opening race.

Roman Grosjean of Haas Ferrari was one of the fastest to be eliminated in Q1, followed by Sauber's Marcus Ericsson, who failed to improve his time in the final run of Q1 and will start 17th in the Bahrain GP ahead of Williams rookie Sergey Sirotkin. The bottom spots were taken by Charles Leclerc of Sauber and Lance Stroll of Williams, with Stroll slower by a tenth of a second than Leclerc.