There were heroics from Charles Leclerc, who looked to start making amends for terrible 2020 for Ferrari with a fine 4th fastest time.
Pierre Gasly continued to show what Red Bull might be missing by qualifying fifth, mightily impressive in the Alpha Tauri.
Daniel Ricciardo has never been out-qualified by a team-mate at Sakhir, and so it remains as the Australian qualified sixth ahead of his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.
Carlos Sainz came in eighth, whilst Fernando Alonso showed no motor racing rustiness as the Spaniard manhandled his Alpine into the final qualifying round and ninth position.
Lance Stroll spared some of Aston Martin’s blushes with 10th on the grid for tomorrow.
2021 Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying results
Position | Driver | Team | Time (Q3) |
1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1min 28.997sec |
2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1min 29.385sec |
3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1min 29.586sec |
4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1min 29.678sec |
5 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1min 29.809sec |
6 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 1min 29.927sec |
7 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1min 29.974sec |
8 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1min 30.215sec |
9 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 1min 30.249sec |
10 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1min 30.601sec |
Q2 times | |||
11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1min 30.659sec |
12 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 1min 30.708sec |
13 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1min 31.203sec |
14 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo | 1min 31.238sec |
15 | George Russell | Williams | 1min 33.430sec |
Q1 times | |||
16 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1min 31.724sec |
17 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 1min 31.936sec |
18 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 1min 32.056sec |
19 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 1min 32.449sec |
20 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 1min 33.273sec |