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Scuderia Ferrari claimed a famous pole position at the 2022 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, as Charles Leclerc stormed to his tenth career pole by just over a tenth from World Champion Max Verstappen. Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr narrowly missed out on the front-row, the Spaniard starts third.

It was an almost perfect first qualifying of the year for Ferrari, who came so close to taking a front-row lockout at the Bahrain International Circuit. The F1-75 has looked strong all weekend, almost on a par with Oracle Red Bull Racing. The F1-75 performed when it mattered though, with Leclerc taking pole position with a 1:30.558.

Ferrari will be hoping for a clean start to the race on Sunday, where reliability looks set to play an instrumental part.

Ferrari Team Principal, Mattia Binotto, is very happy with his drivers performance and believes that the whole team deserve the pole position for all their incredible work.

“We are extremely pleased with today’s performance: we were convinced the potential was there to do well and the fact that both our drivers were in the fight for pole says a lot about the strength of our package – the car, the drivers and everyone who gives their all every day both at the track and back in Maranello.

Charles Leclerc claimed a brilliant season-opening pole position at the Bahrain Grand Prix, in what was the first Qualifying with the new generation of Formula 1 cars. Team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr starts directly behind Leclerc in third.

It was a flawless qualifying by the Monegasque driver, who has looked fast all weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit. Leclerc took pole with an amazing lap, the Scuderia Ferrari driver ended the session a tenth of a second ahead of second-placed Max Verstappen. The first corner has fireworks written all over it!

Leclerc is very happy to be back on pole but recognises he has no time to relax, with the first race of the season just around the corner.

“We knew that it was just a matter of time before we were back in the mix and I’d like to thank our whole team for the hard work that everyone has done to put our car back where it belongs. We are all happy with today’s result, but at the same time we are aware that we can’t relax and have to keep pushing because our competitors are strong.

“We focused on short runs so far in the weekend in preparation for qualifying and did a lot of high fuel laps during testing, so we have gotten to know the car in different situations and it feels good. The trickiest part today was putting the tyres in the right window, but at the end I put it all together and it feels really good to be back on pole.”

Trident’s Richard Verschoor won the opening race of the 2022 FIA Formula 2 season with a dominant drive in Saturday’s Sprint Race, with the win becoming Trident’s first in the modern Formula 2 era.

PREMA Racing’s Jehan Daruvala and Carlin’s Liam Lawson completed the podium in a thrilling race which saw battles throughout the field from start to finish.

The pole-sitter, Felipe Drugovich had a nightmare start, being swallowed by the field and eventually dropping down to as low as seventh on the opening lap. Verschoor started alongside him on the grid and entered the lead where he stayed for the entirety of the race.

Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung was hot on the Dutch drivers heels, sticking close to him until he ran into some tyre troubles. Daruvala made the most of the Swiss drivers troubles, overtaking him with five laps to go before setting his sights on the leader.

Lawson spent most of the race with Drugovich on his gearbox with the Brazilian trying everything he could to get past the Carlin driver in the DRS zones.

Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc claimed the first pole position of 2022, at the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix, as the first Qualifying with the new generation of Formula 1 cars took place under the lights at the Bahrain International Circuit.

It was an exhilarating qualifying to open up the season, with Max Verstappen who had dominated most of the weekend so far, lining up alongside the Monegasque driver. Just +0.129s separated the top three at the end of the session, with Carlos Sainz Jr making it a 1-3 for the Prancing Horses. Elsewhere it was a qualifying to forget for the McLaren F1 Team but a spirited one for the Uralkali Haas F1 Team.

Qualifying 1:

From the get-go, it was clear that the battle for pole would be between the two Ferrari’s and the World Champion, all three comfortably made it through to Qualifying 2. The same can’t be said for Daniel Ricciardo, the McLaren driver was the biggest shock to be eliminated from the opening session. The Australian of course missed the entire Bahrain Pre-Season test after testing positive for COVID-19, his lack of track time perhaps got the better of him. Ricciardo will start from eighteenth.

It was a valiant effort by Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team’s, Nico Hulkenberg, who only got in the car for the first time on Friday, after Sebastian Vettel was ruled out of the season-opener after he tested positive for the Coronavirus. Hulkenberg incredibly managed to out-qualify team-mate Lance Stroll, both Aston Martin’s though missed out on a spot in Qualifying 2.

Alex Albon did brilliantly with his last-lap in the opening session to jump out of the bottom five, the Thai driver just made it through to Qualifying 2 on his return to Formula 1. It was also the first-time since the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix that the Uralkali Haas F1 Team had both cars through to the second stage of qualifying.

Texas Motor Speedway was alive this morning as the first practice got off to a start for the XPEL 375 where Simon Pagenaud, Felix Rosenquist, and Colton Herta landed the top three spots in Free Practice 1. 

The session began with an early yellow flag as David Malukas slowed down to a crawl on the apron. He created a caution just eight minutes into the session by under-fueling the car. 

The same can be said for Jimmie Johnson as he did the same just a few minutes later into the session. Johnson, a former NASCAR champion, has his hopes set high for this weekend as he aims for a top ten finish after testing at the circuit in the offseason, additionally having raced here in his NASCAR career. 

Shortly after the cautions had ended, the top drivers came out to do their first laps around the circuit and Simon Pagenaud capitalized on the moment immediately setting the fastest time of the session. The Meyer Shank Racing driver reached a top speed of 223.087 and the fastest lap, albeit with tow, of 0.23.276s. Pagenaud remained the fastest throughout the session logging a total of 46 laps.

Felix Rosenqvist followed behind Pagenaud with a lap time of 0.23.2594s. The Arrow McLaren driver wasn’t actually all that close to the leader as he was just two-tenths off the pace but the former had the advantage of a tow where Felix did not. 

Max Verstappen took the fastest lap with a 1:32.544 in an active final practice session leading up to today’s qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Just behind Verstappen we saw Charles Leclerc in second and Sergio Pérez in third, once again showing the potential of both Scuderia Ferrari and Oracle Red Bull Racing to lead the pack. 

George Russell slotted into fourth, about four tenths off leading Verstappen, as Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team appeared to gain some pace during the session. The Constructors’ Champions appeared to still be remedying their issues with porpoising, but seem to be making progress with a particularly smooth mid-session lap from Lewis Hamilton, who ended up in sixth. 

Carlos Sainz filled fifth place on the timing sheet, about five tenths off the lead. His team-mate Leclerc suffered a dramatic spin about halfway through the session on the exit of turn eleven that landed him in the gravel, fortunately avoiding the wall.

Overall, there was much leapfrogging between these leading teams for the top position, as we saw the fastest lap shift between them as the session developed.  It looks like Red Bull and Ferrari will be battling for pole position, but Mercedes will never give up!

Mario Isola, the Head of F1 and Car Racing at Pirelli Motorsport, admitted the gaps in performance between the different compounds at the Bahrain International Circuit are bigger than they had anticipated, and this will likely make the decision to which tyre to use at the race start a difficult one.

Isola says he expects conditions to be considerably warmer on race day than they were during Friday’s second free practice session, although he expects teams to have got a lot of knowledge about how the tyres will work come Sunday.

He was also impressed by the pace of the new-for-2022 cars, with Max Verstappen’s best lap time just over a second down on the pace shown by 2021 cars, despite the tyres being one step harder than they were last year.

“Conditions in the key FP2 session were quite cool, while the race will probably take place in warmer temperatures,” said Isola.  “The performance gaps between the compounds are definitely bigger than the targets agreed and it will be interesting to see what effect this has on strategy, when it comes to deciding whether to use the soft or the medium tyre to start the race.

“We saw no graining in the cool conditions of FP2, despite the abrasive surface in Bahrain. Although they had a brand new package, the teams carried out their usual run plans this evening, with performance runs at the beginning of FP2 before concentrating on long runs in the final part.

Nicholas Latifi says Williams Racing are where they expected to be on Friday evening at the Bahrain International Circuit, with the Canadian ending the day nineteenth out of the twenty runners, ahead only of his team-mate Alexander Albon.

Williams struggled with performance during the pre-season test in Bahrain last week, and that has translated into more struggles for the team in the opening round of the 2022 Formula 1 season.

Latifi was an encouraging thirteenth in the opening practice session, but when conditions became more representative of the conditions they are likely to face in Saturday’s Qualifying session and Sunday’s race, Williams slipped to the bottom of the pack.

“We’re where we expected to be after the test last week, but our learning from today is that there are some easy areas we can find some time and try to improve the performance,” said Latifi.  “It’s clear we’re not where we want to be and we know the limitations that are holding us back.

“We’re still building confidence with each lap, each session and each new set of tyres and working to understand exactly how the car needs to be set up to be driven fastest.

After only being told he was driving a couple of days before the opening free practice sessions of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Nico Hülkenberg had a day of learning behind the wheel of the AMR22 on Friday, getting laps on the board to understand more about the car.

Hülkenberg was called up as a last-minute replacement for Sebastian Vettel with the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team, with the four-time World Champion being ruled out of the event after testing positive for COVID-19.

Test driver Hülkenberg had not driven the AMR22 before Friday afternoon’s opening free practice session, but the German was able to get up to speed relatively quickly, setting the fourteenth fastest time in the session.  He slipped to seventeenth in the evening, but Hülkenberg was pleased to get back behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car for the first time since the Eifel Grand Prix of 2020.

“I think today was promising for me: it was all about getting up to speed with the car,” said Hülkenberg.  “I spoke to Sebastian yesterday and he gave me his feedback and insight, so it is always good to have that preparation before jumping into the car.

“However, I was surprised by how different it was, the feel of the tyre, in particular, and the braking process. I am happy with my feeling in the car, though, and how I was able to build on every run to feel more and more comfortable.

Isack Hadjar took a debut win in the FIA Formula 3 Championship Sprint Race in Bahrain on Saturday, as Oliver Bearman was penalised for track limits abuse after crossing the line first.

Carlin‘s Zak O’Sullivan started from pole position after the top 12 of Friday’s Qualifying session were reversed. Prema Racing‘s Ferrari Driver Academy debutant Bearman and David Vidales (Campos Racing) followed O’Sullivan in second and third.

It was an all-rookie, all-British front row at the Bahrain International Circuit, with both O’Sullivan and Bearman winning races in the GB3 Championship last year.

Kush Maini (MP Motorsport) was penalised for not stopping at the weighbridge during Qualifying, ensuring he starts from the pit lane for both races despite finishing the session in third place.

Ayrton Simmons impeded Alexander Smolyar at the final corner, and started the Sprint Race from the back, while the Russian still managed to start sixth.

Pierre Gasly admitted there was some head-scratching to do overnight after two contrasting free practice sessions at the Bahrain International Circuit on Friday.

The Scuderia AlphaTauri driver topped the opening session on Friday afternoon, but when the track cooled under the floodlights of the evening session, the Frenchman was only able to finish down in thirteenth position.

Gasly says they will need to look into why the pace disappeared from the AT-03 when the track cooled, although he was encouraged by the cars long-run pace.  However, he knows it will be important to qualify well on Saturday evening, which will again be held under the floodlights in Bahrain.

“We’ve had two very different sessions today; we topped the timings in FP1 and then in the second session we were P13, so two very contrasting outcomes,” said Gasly.  “I think purely for us the hotter track conditions helped, the car really seemed to click, but tonight we struggled massively in the cold.

“We need to look through everything and understand what happened, especially as Qualifying and the race are both at night here in Bahrain. I think our long run pace was slightly better than the shorter runs, but still we’ve got a lot of work to do to fully understand our performance in these conditions.”

Andrea Stella admits the McLaren F1 Team has some work to do from a performance point of view after a disappointing showing during Friday’s free practice sessions at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Neither Lando Norris nor Daniel Ricciardo were able to break into the top ten in either session, with Norris ending a best of eleventh fastest in the evening session.  Ricciardo couldn’t better seventeenth in either session and also lost track time due to a water leak on his MCL36 in the evening.

Stella, the Executive Director of Racing, says the team had made progress with its brake cooling issues that plagued them during the recent pre-season test at the Bahrain track, but they were left lacking when it came to performance, and they will be working hard overnight to unlock some more pace from the MCL36 to give both Norris and Ricciardo the chance to push into the top ten.

“After today, it looks like we have some work to do from a performance point of view, and we will do that overnight, trying to be as ready as possible for qualifying and the race,” said Stella.

“We needed to stop Daniel a little early this evening to investigate a water leak. This is nothing too serious and will be fixed for the remainder of the weekend. Despite this, today we could achieve pretty much all the programme we had planned.

Lando Norris says the McLaren F1 Team has a lot of work to do overnight if they want to have a competitive car this weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Norris ended outside the top ten in both free practice sessions on Friday, ending down in sixteenth in the afternoon session and eleventh under the floodlights on Friday evening.

McLaren did not have the best of testing programmes in Bahrain just last week, suffering with multiple braking issues, and although progress appears to have been made in that department for the first race of the season, Norris knew it was always going to be a difficult practice day on Friday.

“Today was always going to be a tough day, trying to make up for the lack of long running that we missed out on last week at the test,” said Norris.  “We stuck to our run plan and can take some positives from the day, but there’s a lot of work to do to be competitive.

“That will be our aim overnight, we’ll go and analyse the data, work out where we can improve and do what we can to get the car in a better place for tomorrow.”

Guenther Steiner was full of praise for his Haas F1 Team mechanics and engineers after a problem-free and promising Friday at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen may have finished eighteenth and nineteenth respectively in the afternoon session as the duo focused on longer runs with their VF-22’s, but when they turned up the pace and put some focus into qualifying simulations, both ended up inside the top ten.

Schumacher ended the day eighth fastest and Magnussen tenth, with the team proving that the pace they had during pre-season testing at the same circuit last week was genuine.  It will also be a confidence boost to the team who were well off the pace in every race weekend in 2021.

Steiner, the Team Principal of Haas, had been fearing reliability issues coming into the weekend after they suffered multiple issues during both pre-season tests, but a trouble-free day was welcome, and it was pleasing to see both drivers finishing inside the top ten.  Overall, the team completed ninety-one laps on Friday, forty-seven with Schumacher and forty-four with Magnussen.

“It was a good day today,” said Steiner.  “Surprisingly there were no issues with the car, no gremlins, nothing. That means the team did a fantastic job over the last week from testing to now – it was relentless work.

Mick Schumacher was excited with the potential of the VF-22 after finishing an encouraging eighth fastest in the evening free practice session at the Bahrain International Circuit on Friday.

The Haas F1 Team driver had very few opportunities in his rookie Formula 1 season in 2021 to show his pace behind the wheel as the team put all their focus into developing their 2022 challenger, but the first day in Bahrain was very strong for the German racer.

After focusing on long runs in the afternoon session, Schumacher completed twenty-four laps under the floodlights on Friday evening to place eighth, ahead of seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton.  However, he knows it is only practice at this stage, but there is a positive feeling within the team that they can be genuine points contenders in 2022.

“It was overall very positive – we made good steps at the right moment,” said Schumacher. “Now it’s just about trying to fine-tune what we have and then I think the package is there to be used.

“We’ve done quite a few long runs which seem to be positive and hopefully that will be the case on Sunday as well. It’s only FP2 but it does feel good to be in the top 10.”