Piastri Dominates in Bahrain, Norris Struggles in Sixth

Oscar Piastri took pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix with a commanding performance, while his McLaren teammate Lando Norris had a disappointing qualifying session, ending up in sixth place.

Piastri's advantage over Russell was 0.168 seconds at the head of the field, and Leclerc 0.334secs off the Australian. Norris, who was 0.426secs behind his team-mate, could not explain his lack of pace.

At Ferrari, there was a similar split between their two drivers. Leclerc spoke of following an "extreme" set-up direction in the past couple of races that had made the car "very tricky to drive but it seems like I am quicker that way so we will keep going in that direction".

But Hamilton, 0.597secs slower than his team-mate, seemed unable to explain what had gone wrong from his side, and apologised to his team over the radio as he returned to the pits for what he said was "my poor performance".

Russell had looked on target to be best of the rest throughout the weekend, but finishing second was a happy surprise for the Briton.

Verstappen and Red Bull toil

A week after his outstanding performance to win in Japan, Verstappen and Red Bull looked like a different driver in a different car. He complained over the radio about "terrible" braking and the Red Bull was out of its performance window around the Sakhir track.

The surprise of qualifying was Gasly, just 0.375secs off pole for a team that is last in the championship with no points after the first three races.

Towards the back, Williams' Alex Albon was prevented from progressing into the second part of qualifying because stewards did not notice that Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg had exceeded track limits on this final lap.

Governing body the FIA said that Turn 11 had not been considered a "hot spot" for track limits so was not monitored as closely as other corners. "We are building towards increased resources and improved systems and processes," a spokesperson said. "On this occasion, we got it wrong."