Summary of Saturday's exciting qualification in Bahrain

It has been a long winter break, but today it was finally time for the first qualifying session of the season. After the strong performance on Friday and in the winter test, Max Verstappen showed his muscle by taking pole position.

The man in the spotlight since the winter test two weeks ago is Max Verstappen. The Red Bull Racing team seems to be the team to beat since the winter test and also in the first two free practices the Dutchman managed to put his name on top of the timesheet. The big question was whether he could do the same in the first qualifying session of the year.

Final preparations in VT3

Before it could happen, it was time for the final free practice session. Normally that is the moment for the teams to test their car in 'quali trim', but because the sunny conditions during VT3 are not at all comparable with the qualifying in the dark, that is not the case this time. Some drivers also struggled to get grip on the asphalt, such as Charles Leclerc who pirouetted out of Turn 2.

After the chaotic start, the first times were finally set a little later, mostly on hard tyres. Max Verstappen was one of the first to do so and immediately set a good time. Only in the last fifteen minutes Mercedes really went at it on the soft tyre, allowing Lewis Hamilton to set the fastest time, but before the end Verstappen had to show his strength. In his RB16B the Dutchman set a time that was no less than seven tenths quicker than the Brit. The tone for qualifying was set.

Finally time for the first qualifying session of 2021

Two hours later and the battle for the backmarkers began in Q1. Remarkably, this included Sebastian Vettel, who fell victim to Nikita Mazepin's second pirouette during qualifying. In Q2, there was however one even more notable driver who dropped out early on, namely Sergio Perez. The Mexican gambled on the medium tyres, but fell just short. He dropped to P11 and will have to make up for it at the start of tomorrow's race or drive a long stint on hard tyres.

Max Verstappen knew before the end of the qualifying session that he would have a tough day tomorrow, but the Dutchman didn't give up. In fact, the Red Bull driver showed what he's made of. After Lewis Hamilton improved his first time in the second run, Verstappen waltzed over the Brit with a 1:28.997. That's 0.388 seconds faster than the world champion. This promises to be a great season!