The Latest Breaking News from Red Bull Racing

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.

The F1 season-opener at Sakhir has been overshadowed by the ongoing developments surrounding allegations made against Horner by a female employee of Red Bull Racing.

Max Verstappen finished half a second adrift in sixth in Thursday's FP2, which was held in similar night-time conditions as qualifying and the race, with team-mate Sergio Perez a further three tenths behind in 10th. Meanwhile, Mercedes stole the headlines with a 1-2 for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. But…

As part of the new schedule for Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GPs, qualifying for the race will take place on Friday evening instead of Saturday.

The opening of the new Formula One season was dramatically overshadowed on Thursday evening after a leaked email purporting to contain messages from Christian Horner

The 2024 F1 season has fully arrived following pre-season testing in Bahrain last week, with Hamilton leading a Mercedes 1-2 at the end of FP2, while Red Bull appeared off the pace with Max Verstappen in sixth and Sergio Perez down in 10th.

RB’s Daniel Ricciardo was quickest in Free Practice 1, while Hamilton paced FP2 with a fastest time of the day of 1m30.374s.

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.