Verstappen is on pole, while Leclerc is on the front row for the sixth consecutive race. Here’s how the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix grid lines up.
POLE: Max VERSTAPPEN | 1:29.179
Max Verstappen moves up to fifth in Formula 1’s all-time pole list with the 33rd pole position of his career. The 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix winner will be hoping to repeat last year’s successes. The polesitter has won only nine of the 20 previous races held at Bahrain International Circuit. From his two previous poles here, Verstappen finished runner-up in 2021 and won in 2023.
2nd: Charles LECLERC | 1:29.407
Leclerc records his sixth consecutive front row start and his third start from the front row of the Bahrain Grand Prix grid. He’ll be hoping his 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix is more like his 2022 performance than his disappointing 2023 retirement.
3rd: George RUSSELL | 1:29.485
George Russell records his best qualifying performance in Bahrain since his front row start – where he took the lead into Turn 1 – on his one-off Mercedes appearance in the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix. He’s yet to record a podium finish at the track.
4th: Carlos SAINZ | 1:29.507
Another top four qualification for the man who finished fourth at last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix. In the last four races at the track, there is only one in which Carlos Sainz has not recorded a top four result. Can the Spaniard make progress in the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix?
5th: Sergio PEREZ | 1:29.537
Sergio Perez starts fifth for the third time in the last eight races. The last two times that he did so – at the 2023 Japanese and Mexico City Grands Prix – he failed to reach the chequered flag.
6th: Fernando ALONSO | 1:29.542
Fernando Alonso qualified one position further back for the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix than he did in 2023 – a race in which he finished on the podium. Alonso previously thought a podium finish in the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix was “100% impossible” but now admits that he “can’t say that anymore”.
7th: Lando NORRIS | 1:29.614
Lando Norris has not scored at the Bahrain Grand Prix since 2021, a race in which he started seventh on the grid and finished fourth. Can he make similar moves forward in the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix?
8th: Oscar PIASTRI | 1:29.683
Oscar Piastri reached Q3 for the 12th time in the last 14 races, qualifying ten places further up the grid than he did on debut last year. Lining up eighth on the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix grid, he’ll be hoping to avoid a repeat of last year, where he became the first retirement of the season.
9th: Lewis HAMILTON | 1:29.710
Although he has never previously qualified this far back at this track, Hamilton has lined up ninth on the Bahrain Grand Prix grid twice previously. He drove from ninth to fifth in 2015 and from ninth to a podium finish in 2018. Mercedes have never failed to score points with both cars in Bahrain.
10th: Nico HULKENBERG | 1:30.502
Nico Hulkenberg lines up tenth on the Bahrain Grand Prix grid for a second year in succession. He lost five positions over the course of the 2023 race but Haas hope to have ironed out issues with their race pace over the winter, which could give Hulkenberg a better chance at securing points this year.
11th: Yuki TSUNODA | 1:30.129
Missing out on a top ten slot on the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix grid by just 0.007 seconds, Yuki Tsunoda still recorded his best-ever Bahrain qualifying performance with 11th place. He’s scored points on two of his previous appearances at the track.
12th: Lance STROLL | 1:30.200
Lance Stroll has scored points three times from his last four Sakhir appearances – though each time he has done so he has started from within the top ten on the Bahrain Grand Prix grid. Perhaps Aston Martin’s race pace will give Stroll the advantage over those directly in front in the battle for points.
13th: Alex ALBON | 1:30.221
Recording his fifth Q2 exit from six appearances at Bahrain International Circuit, Alex Albon starts from 13th on the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix grid. He scored a point here last year having started 15th.
14th: Daniel RICCIARDO | 1:30.278
The Red Bull junior team has never previously scored points with both cars at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Both cars start inside the top 14 on the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix grid.
15th: Kevin MAGNUSSEN | 1:30.529
Kevin Magnussen has scored points only twice from his nine previous appearances in Bahrain. Both of those times, he finished in fifth place. Similar progress could be difficult from 15th on the Bahrain Grand Prix grid.
16th: Valtteri BOTTAS | 1:30.756
Valtteri Bottas recorded his first-ever Bahrain Q1 exit on Friday, lining up just ahead of his team-mate on the Bahrain Grand Prix grid. Bottas gained four places from where he started here last year. He did not gain any positions in the last four races of the 2023 season.
17th: ZHOU Guanyu | 1:30.757
Zhou Guanyu was out-qualified by his team-mate by just one thousandth of a second and lines up 17th on the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix grid. He gained five places on his first appearance here in 2022 but lost three positions from where he started last year.
18th: Logan SARGEANT | 1:30.770
Logan Sargeant starts two positions further back from where he started for his debut at last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
19th: Esteban OCON | 1:30.793
A disastrous Friday for Alpine, who line up with both cars on the back row of the grid for the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix. This is Esteban Ocon’s first back row qualification on pace alone since the 2017 Chinese Grand Prix.
20th: Pierre GASLY | 1:30.948
Deja vu for Pierre Gasly, who will line up last on the grid for the Bahrain Grand Prix for the second year in succession. He drove from 20th to ninth in last years race – but will there be enough pace in the Alpine machinery to pull off a similar feat in 2024?
