‘Massive problem’: Piastri rocks Norris and Max as Aussie romps to stunning pole

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri claimed pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday with George Russell’s Mercedes completing the front row as Max Verstappen had a trying evening at the desert circuit.

Series leader Lando Norris, in the other McLaren, starts from the third row with Verstappen facing a tough time on Sunday from the fourth row.

Ferrari introduced upgrades this weekend and they appeared to have had the desired effect with Charles Leclerc on the second row with for company Mercedes’ gifted rookie Kimi Antonelli.

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Alpine are the only team to remain pointless but that could soon change with Pierre Gasly posting the fifth quickest qualifying time to start beside Norris.

Norris leads Verstappen by just one point going into Sunday’s nocturnal showdown in the Gulf kingdom.

But the omens look good for Piastri with pole-sitters accounting for four of the last five winners in Sakhir.

The Australian has been in dominant form so far this weekend, bossing practice.

“I felt confident out there all weekend. FP3 we had good pace, and Qualifying – the others caught up a little closer than I wanted, but I delivered the laps when it mattered so very, very happy.

“I have to get to Turn 1 in first so let’s see what happens but I’ve felt comfortable all weekend. I can’t thank the team enough for the car they have given me.”

Norris cut a dejected figure, saying: “I’m just not quick enough”.

For Piastri, placed third in the championship 13 points behind his teammate, this was only his second ever pole, the first coming in China last month when he went on to win.

As for Verstappen, the writing was on the wall as his evening had begun badly.

“There’s something really wrong with the car,” the four-time world champion told his team as he went wide at turn 14 on his first shot at getting a time on the board in Q1, forcing him to abort.

Red Bull senior adviser Helmut Marko later revealed there was a “massive problem, they could see it on the data, but we don’t know where it came from.”

With his new teammate Yuki Tsunoda having his lap time deleted for track limits both Red Bulls only had five minutes to avoid crashing out at the first roll of the qualifying dice.

Verstappen kept his nerve to go through third behind Norris and Lewis Hamilton.

– Huge smash –

Piastri, who had bossed practice, was fourth, with Tsunoda scraping through in 14th.

Out in Q1 were Alex Albon (Williams), Liam Lawson (RB), Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), and Ollie Bearman (Haas).

The second session was only minutes old when Esteban Ocon had a huge smash into the barriers in his Haas, triggering a red flag.

“I’m ok, sorry, really sorry, guys,” the Frenchman told his team – which is more than can be said for his wreck of a car forcing his mechanics to call off any plans they may have had for Saturday night to get it race ready in 24 hours.

Once a crane had lifted Ocon’s stricken vehicle off the track the session resumed.

Piastri led Norris into the top 10 shoot out.

Verstappen went through in ninth, with Tsunoda rounding out the Q3 line-up. Dropping by the wayside were Jack Doohan (Alpine), Isack Hadjar (RB), Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber), Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and Ocon (Haas).

And so, crunch time arrived with the final flying laps to determine the first five rows of Sunday’s grid.

With less than two minutes on the clock Piastri nailed it nicely with a quickest lap of 1min 29.841s, a tenth of a second quicker than Russell.

The top 10 was rounded out by Carlos Sainz joining Verstappen on the fourth row in his Williams, with Hamilton and Tsunoda occupying the fifth row.

The floodlit qualifying got underway with a regal flavour to the crowd. The ruler of Bahrain, King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, was on hand to watch McLaren, the team his kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund owns.

He bumped into F1 royalty in the shape of three-time former world champion Jackie Stewart, the 85-year-old Scot cutting a dash in a colourful tartan ensemble.

Also in attendance was football royalty in Steven Gerrard, the former Liverpool and England captain who has time on his hands after leaving his role as coach of Saudi side Al-Ettifaq in January.

Verstappen has won the last two years in Sakhir while McLaren are seeking to secure their first win at the 21st attempt in what is in a way their ‘home’ race.