Charles Leclerc has taken pole position for the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix, the first ever pole in his career - becoming the second-youngest ever driver to start a race from pole position at 21 years 166 days. Leclerc's team-mate, Sebastian Vettel, qualified in second to make it a Ferrari 1-2, after he finished just .03s faster than reigning champion Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes, with his team-mate Valtteri Bottas qualifying in fourth ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
Other key talking points include the fact that Pierre Gasly once again failed to advance to the final stage of qualifying, whilst Lando Norris managed to do so for the second consecutive race - an impressive achievement for the rookie, whilst an added bonus for McLaren was that Carlos Sainz too managed to advance into the final stage of qualifying. Romain Grosjean was handed a 3-place grid penalty after having been adjudged to have impeded Norris during the opening part of qualifying.
Starting grid:
Charles Leclerc - Ferrari
Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes
Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-Honda
Kevin Magnussen - Haas-Ferrari
Carlos Sainz - McLaren-Renault
Kimi Raikkonen - Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari
Lando Norris - McLaren-Renault
Daniel Ricciardo - Renault
Romain Grosjean - Haas-Ferrari
Alexander Albon - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
Pierre Gasly - Red Bull Racing-Honda
Sergio Perez - Racing Point-BWT Mercedes
Daniil Kvyat - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
Antonio Giovinazzi - Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari
Nico Hulkenberg - Renault
Lance Stroll - Racing Point-BWT Mercedes George Russell - Williams-Mercedes Robert Kubica - Williams-Mercedes