Hamilton claims Bahrain Grand Prix pole position ahead of Vettel

Lewis Hamilton claimed his fourth straight pole position of the season and his first ever Bahrain Grand Prix pole with a blistering final qualifying laps of the Sakhir Circuit, that saw him beat Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel by 0.411s and more than half a second in front of his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Q1 got underway in slightly calmer conditions than blustery FP3 and Raikkonen was the first to take to the track, with Bottas joining the fray soon after. The Williams driver quickly took P1 but was then eclipsed by Rosberg, who set a time of 1: 35.657 on the medium tyres.

The Mercedes man was soon joined in the top five by soft-tyre runners Nico Hulkenberg and Felipe Nasr. However, immediately prior to their runs, the session had its first retirement when Jenson Button pulled over at the side of the track for the third time in four sessions this weekend in Sakhir.

In the closing stages of the session those in the danger zone were Max Verstappen, Pastor Maldonado and Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi.

Verstappen found the required pace and scraped into Q2 with a time of 1:35.611. Maldonado, however, failed to make it through, his best lap of 1:35.677 only being good enough for P16.

Verstappen’s leap to safety also pushed out Daniil Kvyat, with the Russian putting in a disappointing final lap that netted him P17 behind the Lotus driver. Hulkenberg was the last man through to Q2, the Force India driver’s 1:35.653 seeing him safely through with just two hundredths of a second in hand over Maldonado, who was told over team radio that something had “gone wrong with the engine and power delivery.” In FP3 Maldonado had taken a useful seventh with his quali sim, a repeat of the position he filled in the second practice session.

At the top of the order, Hamilton was quickest, finishing a tenth in front of Bottas. Rosberg was third, though he finished the session close on half a second down on his team-mate.

Felipe Massa was fourth for Williams, ahead of Raikkonen, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel, who completed just three laps in the opening session. All drivers set their best times on the soft tyre.

In the second session, Rosberg initially set the pace but Hamilton quickly worked his way back to the top of the order, his first run netting a time of 1:32.669. Rosberg was also again eclipsed by Massa who set a time three tenths of a second quicker than Rosberg’s.

The last to set an opening time were the Ferraris of Raikkonen and Vettel, though both rapidly staked a claim on a Q3 berth with the Finn in P2 and the German in P4.

Most of the front runners opted to rely on their first run to see them through and in the closing stages those in the drop zone were Hulkenberg, Force India team-mate Sergio Perez, Nasr, Sauber team-mate Ericsson and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso.

Hulkenberg was the man to make the big move, claiming ninth place in Q2 with a time of 1:34.613. Behind him Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz scraped through in P10, six hundredths of a second clear of 11th-placed Sergio Perez. The Mexican was followed by Nasr and Ericsson. Alonso claimed P14, while 15th place went to the unfortunate Verstappen, who early in the session had reported that he was down on power.

The first runs in Q3 saw Hamilton in charge again, with the champion setting a time of 1:33.552 on used softs to take P1 three tenths of a second ahead of Red Bull’s Ricciardo, who prior to Hamilton’s lap had claimed the fastest S3 time of the session using new soft tyres.

Rosberg, also on used softs, was third, four thousandths of a second down on the Australian’s time. Hulkenberg, with just one new set of softs at his disposal, opted to sit out the first run.

In the final runs, Vettel was the first of the likely front-row men across the line and with purple times in S1 and S2, the German set a provisional pole time of 1:32.982. It was a superb lap but Hamilton was already running faster, stealing the S1 purple time from the German.

Ahead of the champion on track, Rosberg had similarly taken the best S2 time but he could not find more pace and when he crossed the line he slotted into third, four hundredths of a second behind Vettel.

With Raikkonen already fourth and the Williams cars of Bottas and Massa in fifth and sixth the pole was Hamilton’s to take, and he did so in imperious style, blasting across the line 0.4s ahead of Vettel and, perhaps most significantly more than half a second clear of Rosberg.

Behind the Williams pair, Ricciardo was seventh for Red Bull ahead of the excellent Hulkenberg. Sainz was similarly effective for Toro Rosso in claiming ninth, while Romain Grosjean took the final top 10 place for Lotus.