
Sebastian Vettel has claimed pole position for Ferrari in Bahrain, with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen making it a Ferrari 1-2 and thus a front row lockout. Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas will start in third place, whilst Hamilton qualified fourth but will drop 5 places on the grid due to a gearbox change as it was discovered that it suffered a hydraulic leak at the last race in Australia.
Meanwhile, Max Verstappen of Red Bull will start from 15th on the grid after he crashed in Q1 (although he did get through to Q2) and thus did not participate any further, a spin which he attributed to a "power surge" of around 150hp. Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly from Red Bull's junior team - Toro Rosso, qualified an impressive sixth (which will mean he will start fifth tomorrow).
Starting grid:
Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes
Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Pierre Gasly - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
Kevin Magnussen - Haas-Ferrari
Nico Hulkenberg - Renault
Esteban Ocon - Force India-Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
Carlos Sainz - Renault
Brendon Hartley - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Renault
Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren-Renault
Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Romain Grosjean - Haas-Ferrari
Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
Sergey Sirotkin - Williams-Mercedes
Charles Leclerc - Sauber-Ferrari
Lance Stroll - Williams-Mercedes