00:01I think it was a really nice lap from George. Will he be rewarded for it?
00:05His reward 7th fastest for George Russell. Big leap with a 1.31.3. Big lockup going into the first
00:12turn there.
00:12Oh, it's Nikita Mazepin that's having trouble down there.
00:16Now, did anyone get caught up with the yellow flags down there and suffer and have to get off the
00:23throttle and lose time as a result of it, I wonder?
00:26And here comes Fernando Alonso, who's down in 15th place at the moment, and his teammate Esteban Ocon on a
00:33fast lap needs to get out of the bottom five as well.
00:36Lance Stroll now goes dropping down. Carlos Sainz in danger as well. Alonso, 7th fastest, and we're on board with
00:43Esteban Ocon.
00:45Ocon's worst qualifying here in Bahrain, 14th on the grid. If he could get 14th here, I would imagine he'll
00:52be a very happy man indeed.
00:53Ocon to the line goes 15th out of the bottom five. Two Aston Martins were in the bottom five.
01:00Stroll now pushes Ocon back into the relegation zone. So Stroll manages to get out of Q1.
01:05What about his teammate Sebastian Vettel? No, I think he might have got caught up in those yellow flags when
01:10we saw the Haas in trouble down at turn one.
01:14Sebastian Vettel on his debut for Aston Martin is out in qualifying one.
01:19Carlos Sainz stopped out on the track, and I think we can have a little look at the problem that
01:26the Ferrari driver encountered.
01:28Engine stopped. I don't know why.
01:31And that might not be the end of the story as well, because the stewards are going to look at
01:37the lap times set during yellow flags.
01:43Through those final couple of corners now, we'll get the DRS zone gap open wide as he makes his bid
01:50for the line. He goes fifth fastest.
01:52So Leclerc is now down in the bottom five. Tsunoda, Raikkonen, Russell and Ricciardo hasn't set a time.
01:58Leclerc goes quickest overall in the Ferrari on the soft compound tyre, but Leclerc with a 130.010 is now
02:07usurped by his teammate by one millisecond.
02:10Carlos Sainz goes fastest. Alonso goes in to the top ten, puts Giovinazzi at risk. Can Norris beat him and
02:17Ricciardo?
02:18Well, Ricciardo goes fifth fastest, pushes Antonio Giovinazzi out of the equation for Q3.
02:24Fernando Alonso is in Q3 for Alpine showing their hand. Hamilton has gone third fastest.
02:29Norris goes fourth fastest as he crosses the line. And what an exciting end to Q2 that was with Ferrari
02:37one and two, albeit on the soft tyre.
02:40Perez for Red Bull out of the top ten shootout. Now that's a great surprise.
02:53On board now with Valtteri Bottas. Can't beat Pierre Gasly in the hour for Tauri. Two tenths down.
03:00His teammate Lewis Hamilton meanwhile purple through the first sector does go fastest by half a second.
03:05And now it's all eyes on this man Carlos Sainz and the man behind him Max Verstappen as well.
03:11Verstappen quickest through the middle sector. Sainz fourth fastest. Hamilton's on provisional pole.
03:15Verstappen beats him by two one hundredths of a second. That's the battle we want to see in Formula One
03:22in 2021.
03:23Whoever wins and comes out on top doesn't matter as long as it's close. And it's close by two one
03:30hundredths so far.
03:33Lewis wants to be five or six seconds behind. He'll get a bit of a slipstream effect down the pit
03:37straight without taking any pain through the corners.
03:42Bottas through turns one, two and three. We've seen a few cars spin this week already coming out of turn
03:48two.
03:49Bottas negotiates that safely. Looking for a first sector time round about twenty eight and a half seconds to stay
03:55on the pace of Verstappen with that provisional pole time.
03:58And he's underneath by just two one hundredths of a second. Don't discount Valtteri Bottas out.
04:04He quite often saves his best for last as well. But his teammate Lewis Hamilton is a tenth up and
04:09setting a purple time through that first sector.
04:11He's two tenths up on Pierre Gasly. Here's Lewis Hamilton. We'll wait for Max Verstappen who's at a twenty eight
04:17three matches Hamilton through the first sector.
04:20Yeah, fractionally ahead. So Gasly's the one who hasn't had a particularly stellar first sector of the leading runners at
04:27the moment.
04:28Charles Leclerc at twenty eight four in that first sector matches Bottas. Carlos Sainz four tenths down on his teammate.
04:34As away goes Valtteri Bottas. Through the middle sector he goes and he's lost time in that middle part of
04:40the lap.
04:41It looks like a Mercedes-Benz Formula One car again though, doesn't it? Turn the wheel, in it goes.
04:46Lewis Hamilton is up fractionally, but Max Verstappen chasing him down. Pierre Gasly had a decent middle sector, only a
04:53tenth behind Hamilton.
04:54As Bottas comes to the line now, crosses the line, and it is only third fastest for Valtteri Bottas.
05:01Max Verstappen's gone quickest overall in the middle sector.
05:03Hamilton now crosses the line. He's back on provisional pole with Verstappen trying to stop him.
05:09Gasly, now to cross the line, stays fourth fastest. Max Verstappen's never had back-to-back poles in his life.
05:15He has now in Formula One, and by nearly four tenths of a second, Max Verstappen has sent the Red
05:22Bull garage into raptures.
05:24He's on pole for the Bahrain Grand Prix. He's on pole for the opening race of the season, and it's
05:30the first time Red Bull have done it since 2013.
05:33Oh, I finally made it. That lap was good.
05:37Well done, Max. That's the perfect start. Well done. Great, great job.
05:41Yeah, great job, guys.
05:43Three purple sectors. Fastest man in every single one of them, and that's an absolute cracker from Max Verstappen.
05:52He had an answer when he needed to. It had all been a bit scruffy up until that point, hadn't
05:56it?
05:57And suddenly, he's absolutely unleashed a masterful lap.
06:01The End
06:03The End
06:05You
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