Sebastian Vettel stormed to pole position for Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix, locking out the front row with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen alongside him.
The four-time world champion had languished behind Raikkonen all weekend long up until the final part of qualifying where he pulled out an all-time lap record of 1:27:958 to clinch his 51st career pole position on his 200th grand prix weekend.
Both Mercedes couldn't get on top of Ferrari across all of the practice sessions and had to settle for Valtteri Bottas in third and Lewis Hamilton fourth in Q3, the reigning world champion will drop to ninth after serving his five-place grid penalty. Hamilton completed his Q2 time on soft tyres giving Mercedes a different strategy to try and move up the field in the race.
The sole Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo in Q3 had to settle for fifth place in qualifying, two tenths shy of Hamilton's time, but the race pace from Friday will keep the Australian confident of a good result on Sunday.
Max Verstappen was the biggest casualty of Q1 after crashing at Turn 3 due to the car breaking traction on the exit of Turn 2 and sliding into the wall on the outside of the track, breaking the suspension on the RB14. The Dutchman will start from 15th providing there are no major parts changed on the car.
Toro Rosso-Honda of Pierre Gasly was the biggest surprise out Saturday's session by putting the STR13 into the final part of qualifying, to top it off he even managed sixth in the session which will become fifth after Hamilton's penalty, lots of eyes will on the Italian team if they can maintain that pace in the race.
Kevin Magnussen proved the Haas does have raw pace by managing to put his Haas into seventh, Esteban Ocon managed to split the Renaults of Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr to round off the top 10.
From Q2, the McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne failed to make the final part of qualifying, ending the session 13th and 14th respectively behind the Toro Rosso of Brendon Hartley and Force Indias Sergio Perez, with Max Verstappen in 15th after his Q1 crash.
Romain Grosjean was also the major loss from the first part of qualifying after a scruffy lap left the Frenchman completing the same lap as Fernando Alonso on a 1:30:530, however, due to completing the time after the Spaniard, it meant Grosjean was left out.
The other casualties from Q1 were both Williams and Saubers of Sergey Sirotkin, Lance Stroll, Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson respectively.






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