Front row for Ferrari in Bahrain, Hamilton will start from P9

Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen will start from the front row tomorrow in the Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix. Vettel was the fastest qualifier at Bahrain International Circuit, setting the lap time 1.27.958, what was 0.143 sec faster than Raikkonen. It’s the 51st F1 pole position in a career for Vettel.

Sebastian Vettel scored his 51st pole position

Valtteri Bottas was the third fastest, ahead of reigning champion Lewis Hamilton. However, two Mercedes drivers will not share the second row on the starting grid because Hamilton received five-place grid penalty as a result of an unscheduled gearbox change. Hamilton penalty promoted fifth-fastest Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) to P4 on the start.

Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas) will share the third row, in front of Nico Hulkenberg (Renault) and Esteban Ocon (Force India) in the fourth row. Lewis Hamilton will start from P9, next to Carlos Sainz Jr (Renault) in the tenth place. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) crashed out during the Q1 after setting the fourth fastest time. He didn’t start in Q2 and will start from P2.