The Latest Breaking News from Carlos Sainz

The reigning world champion crossed the line with a 22.4s gap over Perez to clinch his eighth successive F1 win, going back to his Suzuka win last year.

The reigning world champion crossed the line with a 22.4-second gap over Perez to clinch his eighth successive F1 win, stretching back to his Suzuka win last year.

Although Red Bull had been predicted to resume its 2023 dominance after testing, Verstappen had not headlined any of the sessions leading up to the final stage of qualifying as Ferrari and Mercedes largely took the limelight. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc headed Q1 and Q2 respectively, but the Ferrari…

Max Verstappen's quest for a fourth consecutive Formula One world championship began in style on Friday with the Red Bull ace claiming pole for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

The reigning champion had taken a back seat during the opening two stages of qualifying but, when it came down to Q3, he set a demanding benchmark of a 1m29.421s - and then beat his own effort amid the final runs to settle on a 1m29.179s.

Verstappen will start ahead of Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and George Russell (Mercedes) after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.

The reigning champion had taken a back seat during the opening two stages of qualifying but, when it came down to Q3, he set a demanding benchmark of 1m29.421s - and then beat his own effort amid the final runs to settle on a 1m29.179s.

Mercedes had a low-key test at Sakhir in terms of outright pace, but the Brackley team topped the times in FP2, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of George Russell.

The Briton set the early benchmark in the session on soft tyres and subsequently cranked up the dial with a 1m30.374s to put distance between himself and the rest of the field.