F1 2018 Bahrain GP: Vettel takes pole position at Sakhir

It had already been said in the preview that the Sakhir Circuit, where the 2018 F1 Bahrain GP takes place, was ideal for the conditions of Ferrari. The drivers of the Italian team already demonstrated this claim during Friday’s free practice sessions and have confirmed it during Saturday. All they still need is to close out the weekend with a win in the race.

Sebastian Vettel in first place, and Kimi Raikkonen in second, will be the drivers of the cars occupying the most advanced positions on the starting grid at Sakhir. The Ferrari have beaten the Mercedes during the qualifying session, and within the German team, Valtteri Bottas was quicker than Lewis Hamilton, who is not having his best weekend.

And the fact is that, apart from only managing the fourth-best time, Hamilton will have to start from ninth place. The Briton received a five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox, a penalty that, combined with his poor qualifying and the performance he has shown Ferrari throughout the weekend, greatly complicates his chances of achieving what would be his third victory in Bahrain.

The surprise of qualifying came from Pierre Gasly, as the young French driver managed to place his Toro Rosso in sixth position, behind Daniel Ricciardo. Gasly was the best of the rest and took advantage of the fact that Max Verstappen did not make it into Q3 and did not even run in Q2, after an accident in Q1 that left him out for the rest of the session.

Also missing out in Q1 was Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard scraped through to Q2, tying to the thousandth with the time of the first eliminated driver, Grosjean, and in Q2 he was not close to fighting for a place among the top ten. The other Spanish driver, Carlos Sainz, fared better, and will start from tenth place, with times behind Magnussen (seventh), his teammate Hulkenberg (eighth) and Ocon (ninth).

The times from the qualifying session at the 2018 F1 Bahrain GP are as follows:

What will happen during the race, which, as a reminder, starts at 17:10 (Spanish time)? Will Vettel win and repeat his triumph, as everything suggests, or will there be a surprise at a circuit which, as has been seen on other occasions, tends to favour someone who did not start from pole position?