Max Verstappen asserted his dominance ahead of the first F1 race of the 2023 season, after taking pole position for the Bahrain GP ahead of Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
All the Fernando Alonso hype died down with the Aston Martin driver finishing fifth after impressing throughout practice in Bahrain, but ended up behind both Ferrari cars, as Charles Leclerc came in third and Carlos Sainz fourth.
The Mercedes pair of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton qualified sixth and seventh, respectively.
F1 2023 Bahrain GP – Qualifying Results
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:29.708 |
| 2 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | +0.138 |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +0.292 |
| 4 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | +0.446 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | +0.628 |
| 6 | George Russell | Mercedes | +0.632 |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +0.676 |
| 8 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | +1.128 |
| 9 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | +1.276 |
| 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | — |
| 11 | Lando Norris | McLaren | Eliminated in Q2 |
| 12 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | Eliminated in Q2 |
| 13 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | Eliminated in Q2 |
| 14 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | Eliminated in Q2 |
| 15 | Alex Albon | Williams | Eliminated in Q2 |
| 16 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | Eliminated in Q1 |
| 17 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | Eliminated in Q1 |
| 18 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | Eliminated in Q1 |
| 19 | Nyck de Vries | AlphaTauri | Eliminated in Q1 |
| 20 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | Eliminated in Q1 |
