The China Mail - McLaren's Piastri claims Bahrain pole as Norris, Verstappen struggle

Series leader Norris could only make it onto the third row with Verstappen facing an even tougher time on Sunday from the fourth row.

George Russell had originally qualified in second, but he and Kimi Antonelli in the other Mercedes received one-place grid penalties.

The late kick in the teeth came after the stewards sanctioned them for entering the pitlane before the second qualifying session resumed after a red flag.

As a result Ferrari's Charles Leclerc moves up onto the front row, with Antonelli, who qualified fourth, dropping down to the third.

Ferrari introduced upgrades this weekend and they appeared to have had the desired effect with Leclerc enjoying a positive evening.

Alpine are the only team to remain pointless but that could soon change with Pierre Gasly posting the fifth quickest qualifying time but then moved up to the second row on Antonelli's demotion.

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.

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.

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.

C.Fong--ThChM