IT’S NOT ALL BAD NEWS, CHRISTIAN ... MAX IS ON POLE!

Red Bull at the front but there’s hope for Mercedes as Russell starts third

WITH the eyes of the world on his Red Bull boss, Formula One world champion Max Verstappen ensured it was business as usual on the track as he snatched pole position at the season’s opener in Bahrain.

In an eventful qualifying that saw a nervy start for Lewis Hamilton and frustrations over slow queues in the pit lane, Red Bull and Ferrari ended up battling for the front row.

The teams shared the lead throughout the three qualifying rounds, with Verstappen undoing the Italians right at the end of Q3. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc placed second and Mercedes’ George Russell finished strongly to come home third, just 0.306 seconds behind Verstappen.

Carlos Sainz, top of the leaderboard in the first session, was fourth, pipping Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris.

After posting the fastest lap in Thursday’s second practice round, Hamilton endured a difficult night, just about avoiding elimination in Q1 before having to work hard to finish ninth, half a second slower than Verstappen.

Embattled Red Bull boss Christian Horner was in the paddock talking to Verstappen and other team members as they claimed pole.

Verstappen apologised for what he perceived to be a scruffy lap.

‘Don’t be sorry, Max,’ said Horner over the team radio. ‘You finished two-tenths clear of Charles and three-tenths ahead of George.’

After three titles in a row, Verstappen is huge favourite to win the big prize again, although he admitted claiming the first pole of the year was ‘a little bit unexpected’.

‘It was a lot of fun,’ said the Dutchman. ‘I’m very happy to be on pole, to be honest it was a little bit unexpected, but in qualifying I think the car came to us and I felt a bit happier.

‘We need to fine tune a few things on the car to try and get that perfect balance, but with the wind that was not possible. Luckily we could really push a bit more.’

Ominously, Verstappen has gone on to win the last 14 times he has claimed pole.

But the qualifying session did give us an indication that this season’s championship may be closer than the last, with Leclerc nearly pipping the champion.

Russell was pleased that Mercedes have made some improvements. ‘We have a lot of catching up to do, but starting third here in Bahrain is a great place for us,’ he said. ‘We have made a big step forward in single-lap pace and hopefully we have not compromised our race pace. But Max is out ahead and the race for all of us is for second.’

The session began in bizarre fashion, with traffic building up as drivers slowed to exit the pit lane and give themselves enough room to manoeuvre behind the car in front. At one stage there were at least seven cars trundling along in a slow-moving tailback.

That angered Verstappen and Leclerc, who lambasted their fellow drivers over the team radio. The Frenchman fumed: ‘The guys in front of Carlos are stopping, we are not allowed to stop usually.’

Alpine endured a nightmare start to the season, with both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly suffering elimination in the first round after finishing rock bottom.

They came sixth last season, but early signs are that this year could prove quite the challenge.