
Valtteri Bottas has qualified on pole position in the 2017 Bahrain Grand Prix, making it his first ever pole position in Formula 1. He edged Mercedes team-mate Hamilton by just 0.023s. Completing the top 3 was Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel.
In Q1, Kevin Magnussen of Haas, Marcus Ericsson of Sauber, Sergio Perez of Force India, McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne and Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz were eliminated. The biggest shock was arguably Sergio Perez, but he got caught out by a yellow flag at the end of the session, after Carlos Sainz's car stopped, who was on a quick lap himself.
In Q2, it was Fernando Alonso of McLaren, Esteban Ocon of Force India, Pascal Wehrlein of Sauber, Lance Stroll of Williams, and Daniil Kvyat of Toro Rosso who were knocked out. Wehrlein qualified an impressive 13th, ahead of the Force India of Esteban Ocon. Jolyon Palmer made it into Q3 for the first time in his Formula 1 career.
Finally Q3 came. After the first runs, Hamilton was ahead of Bottas by just 2 hundredths of a second, with the 2 Ferraris of Vettel and Raikkonen behind respectively. The Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo followed.
In the second and final runs, Bottas managed to pip Hamilton by 23 thousandths of a second. Hamilton did not improve on his initial lap time, losing a substantial amount of time in sector 2, and having to correct oversteer in sector 3 cost him time as well. Vettel followed, with Ricciardo managing to set a time faster than Raikkonen. The remainder of the top 10 was: Verstappen, Hulkenberg, Massa, Grosjean and Palmer.
Qualifying classification:
Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Nico Hulkenberg - Renault
Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes
Romain Grosjean - Haas-Ferrari
Jolyon Palmer - Renault
Daniil Kvyat - STR-Renault
Lance Stroll - Williams-Mercedes
Pascal Wehrlein - Sauber-Ferrari
Esteban Ocon - Force India-Mercedes
Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda
Carlos Sainz - STR-Renault
Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren-Honda
Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
Kevin Magnussen - Haas-Ferrari