BAHRAIN F1 GP QUALIFYING

Charles Leclerc claimed pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix from teammate Sebastian Vettel with a Q3 time of 1.27.866  . Leclerc became the second youngest driver to do so as Ferrari continued to show a distinct advantage over the AMG Mercedes, while the remainder of the field were left to fight for the third row of the grid.

Vettel’s place on the grid came under some scrutiny with the possibility of a grid penalty after reports that the German had driven too slowly during the  closing stages of Q1.He was summoned to the Stewards after qualifying to explain his actions. The subsequent report cleared Vettel and he retained his front row position.

The report stated, “The driver stated he was on a push lap and, when coming into turn 1, he heavily flat-spotted both front tyres. He aborted the lap however the car was experiencing severe vibrations (as evidenced by the telemetry tabled in evidence). As a result, the driver could not maintain the speed required to meet the requirement to stay below the maximum time specified.”

Leclerc was in a class of his own, with a clear gap back to Vettel, who had Lewis Hamilton and Australian Grand Prix winner, Valtteri Bottas in close company. There was another gap to the remainder of the top 10 with Max Verstappen, Kevin Magnussen, Carlos Sainz, Romain Grosjean, Kimi Raikkonen and Lando Norris.

“Thanks guys! The car was amazing,” Leclerc said over the team radio after his track record time of one minute 27.866 seconds. is a good beginning, I’ll try and finish the job tomorrow.”

Romain Grosjean was also investigated for a slow push lap, in Q1 which almost ended in disaster for a fast closing Lando Norris. Grosjean did not fare as well as Vettel and received a 3 place grid penalty for the incident which dropped the Haas driver from 8th on the grid to 11th.

The Steward’s report stated, “The speed differential was 136 km/h at the point where car 4 [Norris] had to take avoiding action,” read the stewards’ report.“The Stewards accept that the driver of car 8 [Grosjean] did not intentionally intend to impede, however it is the driver’s responsibility to be aware, when traveling abnormally slowly, that faster cars may be approaching.”

As a result of the penalty, Kimi Kimi Raikkonen moves to P8, ahead of Norris in 9th and Daniel Ricciardo in P10. Grosjean was also handed one penalty point on his Super Licence for the incident, taking his tally to eight in the last 12 months. Any driver who accumulates 12 points over the same period will receive an automatic one-race ban.

Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner was not impressed the stewards opted to add a penalty point in addition to the grid penalty.”He didn’t do anything wrong, there was no radio call,” said Steiner. “Why should he get a point? It’s completely inappropriate. The grid penalty, we can discuss, but to give him a point. Guys? Where are we living? It’s very difficult if you have one car in the middle which is on a fast lap. I don’t want to discuss the penalty of the grid position, that’s a different story. But a point to the driver? What can he do? He should look in the mirror, yes, but then he doesn’t look forward. I don’t know where the stewards are going with it.”

The penalty was some welcome news for Daniel Ricciardo and Renault, which promoted the #3 into the top 10, a result that the team had expected before final qualifying, but not necessarily from Ricciardo. Nico Hulkenberg had run inside the top 10 for much of the weekend only to be a shock exit from Q1 with an engine mapping issue. Ricciardo had also been on the bump spot in the final stages but survived at the expense of his teammate. His Q2 time was only a tenth or three from Kimi Raikkonen, as the Australian missed Q3 for the second race in succession.

“Qualifying wasn’t perfect for us by any means, but it’s an improvement from where we’ve been so far this weekend,” Ricciardo said. “In the end we were closer to Q3 than we expected at the end of Friday. We’re there or thereabouts and we know we have things to work on. I’m still learning to master this car, but I’m getting there each time I step into it. We have a free choice of tyres for tomorrow’s race, which gives us some things to assess overnight on strategy. I’ll be aiming to get the most out of it, and taking a handful of points is certainly a possibility.”

Alan Permane, Renault Sporting Director, pinpointed an engine mapping issue as the cause for the team’s pace in Q1. “It has been a difficult qualifying session for the team today. We faced a number of issues that cost significant performance, the most expensive one being an engine mapping issue generating an engine safe mode almost the entire lap. It is disappointing but we will aim to make progress up the grid in tomorrow’s race.”

Photo: Ferrari media Admin

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