Charles Leclerc went fastest in a wild qualifying session which saw Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton struggle and Max Verstappen fail to beat pre-season favourites Ferrari.
The Italian team were prevented from locking out the front row only by a strong lap from Verstappen, which was enough to split Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. However, he did not manage to go faster than the Monegasque, as Ferrari lived up to the hype to put themselves in a strong position ahead of the first race of the season.
But arguably the biggest shock of qualifying was George Russell, who could manage only ninth in his first session as a contracted Mercedes driver. He suffered the ignominy of finishing behind Valtteri Bottas, who now races for Alfa Romeo after losing his seat to the Briton for this season.
It was two poor results for Mercedes, as Hamilton finished fifth behind both Ferrari and Red Bull cars unable to match their pace. He will share the third row of the grid with his old team-mate Bottas, who enjoyed a brilliant start to the latest chapter of his career with the sixth-fastest time.
Kevin Magnussen is another who will be thrilled with his performance, as he celebrated his return to Formula 1 by not only reaching Q3, but producing a brilliant lap to qualify in seventh. He will line up just ahead of Fernando Alonso, who managed eighth in his Alpine.
And then there was Russell, for whom a ninth-placed finish in qualifying would not have been what he wanted. It was perhaps proof that Mercedes really were not sandbagging when they claimed they may struggle to compete at the front of the grid in the early weeks of the season.
Rounding off the top 10 was Pierre Gasly, who had sounded delighted just to squeeze into the final session when he whooped over team radio. By doing so he secured a starting spot ahead of Esteban Ocon in the second Alpine, who may be slightly disappointed not to have made it into Q3.
Almost certainly more angry will be Lando Norris, who did not make it to that third session and instead qualified 13th, one place behind the second Haas driven by Mick Schumacher. At least it was better than his McLaren team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, whose session ended much earlier than he would have hoped.
The Australian's pre-season was heavily disrupted, as a positive Covid-19 test saw him miss out on all three days of testing in Bahrain. Still, starting 18th on the grid will not be what he would want, nor would he have liked to have been out-qualified by a team-mate at this track for the first time in his F1 career.
If it was a bad day for McLaren, it was worse for Aston Martin who lost both cars in Q1. Lance Stroll would be angry with 19th place in any circumstance, but even more so by the fact he was behind Nico Hulkenberg, who managed 17th despite having just 24 hours to get used to the car as he stepped in for Sebastian Vettel, who is missing the race due to his own positive Covid test.
Alex Albon squeezed into Q2 on his F1 return to qualify 15th, ahead of debutant Zhou Guanyu in the second Alfa Romeo. At the very back of the pack is the second Williams driven by Nicholas Latifi, who will have it all to do if he is to get anything out of the race on Sunday.
