Lewis Hamilton will start on pole position for the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix after setting the fastest ever lap around the Sakhir circuit, whilst Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg will start second to give the team their eighth consecutive front-row lockout.
The Briton’s first lap wasn’t quite good enough after a final corner mistake saw him run wide, putting him fourth behind provisional pole sitter Rosberg and the two Ferraris.
However come the second round of flying laps, Hamilton put in the perfect lap to narrowly beat Rosberg by just 0.077s.
Meanwhile Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel will start third ahead of Kimi Raikkonen – the pair ending up half a second and seven-tenths down respectively.
Daniel Ricciardo completed the top five, followed by the Williams pair, whilst Nico Hulkenberg rounded-off the top eighth cars.
A faulty pitlane light saw Q2 delayed by about a minute as although the timing screen confirmed the session had begun, a red light at the end of the pitlane halted Raikkonen and the Mercedes pair. A marshal frantically waved a green flag to get the session going eventually.
With the session underway, Daniil Kvyat was the first man to drop out as a late improvement from Romain Grosjean knocked the Red Bull driver into the elimination spot.
Meanwhile Grosjean’s lap was almost good enough for Q3, but an improvement from Force India’s Hulkenberg put the brakes on the Haas drivers progress. The Frenchman will start ninth ahead of Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen, tenth, and Carlos Sainz.
McLaren’s practice pace didn’t translate into qualifying pace as Jenson Button could only get himself up to P14, but Fernando Alonso stand-in Stoffel Vandoorne impressed with P12 – beating Button’s time by just 0.064s.
Pascal Wehrlein narrowly missed making it through to Q2 for Manor, with just a few tenths separating him and 15th position. He will therefore start P16, five places ahead of team-mate Rio Haryanto who was almost 1.5s slower.
Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson was the sixth driver eliminated in the opening session, with the Swede out-qualifying Force India’s Sergio Perez and Renault’s Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer.
Magnussen will start from the pitlane after he missed a call to attend the weigh-bridge during practice, therefore he was likely opting to save tyres, rather than pushing for a lap-time.
