Mar 30, 2019  Leclerc is the 99th different driver in the history of the world championship to take a pole position, doing so in race number 999; He’s also the first driver from Monaco to take pole, with the small Mediterranean Principality now one of just 21 countries to be able to boast an F1 polesitter; Bahrain Qualifying facts and stats. Lewis Hamilton stormed to pole position at the Bahrain Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg. Ferrari appeared in a position to challenge until the final laps, when the Mercedes.

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Lewis Hamilton was last night celebrating a dramatic win after Formula One's emerging star, Charles Leclerc, was robbed of victory following a cruel engine failure here in Bahrain.Leclerc, in just his second race for Ferrari, was on course to become the sport’s third-youngest winner following the drive of his young career.But with just 11 of the 57-lap race to run, a devastating mechanical problem saw him lose significant straight-line speed. 'What is happening,' the 21-year-old yelled over the radio in horror.

Just two laps later, Hamilton had wiped out the Monegasque’s nine-second lead, before cruising past him to claim the 74th win of his career, and the first of his championship defence.Despite losing 30mph in power, Leclerc nursed his poorly machine to third, aided when the race finished behind a safety car with Daniel Ricciardo's parked Renault dangerously positioned. It was the final act of a dramatic grand prix.' It is sad because I was so close to realising a childhood dream which is to win in Formula One,' said Leclerc. 'Hopefully it will come one day in the future.' On the evidence presented this weekend, he will not have to wait long.On Saturday, Leclerc delivered a statement of intent by blowing away team-mate Sebastian Vettel to clinch his maiden pole.

He started poorly, dropping to third, before re-passing Valtteri Bottas - also a fortunate recipient of Leclerc's late demise to finish second - and Vettel, too, with a fine move. By lap six, he was back in the lead.Leclerc was signed by Ferrari after an encouraging debut season with Sauber, but Vettel's number one status within the team was expected to go unchallenged. This weekend however, has felt like a changing of the guard.Vettel, the man who Ferrari have backed to end a championship drought which stretches back to 2008, was thrashed in qualifying, the race, and then catastrophically spun when duelling with Hamilton. He finished fifth.On lap 38, and with Leclerc in control of the race, Vettel and Hamilton were fighting for second. Hamilton stamped on the brakes later than Vettel and made the move stick around the outside of the right-handed fourth bend. Suddenly, Vettel then lost control of his car, and to make matters worse, his front wing dramatically broke free of his Ferrari.

The crest-fallen German fell to ninth after a visit to the pits for repairs.Remarkably, Vettel, paid £36million-a-year by Ferrari - second only to Hamilton - has now spun in four of his last 10 appearances. Hamilton may have expected Vettel to be his closest challenger for a sixth world title. The Briton could now be forgiven for thinking Leclerc will fill those shoes.'

For Charles, it is always good to look at the glass half-full,' said Hamilton, now one point adrift of team-mate Bottas in the championship standings. 'He was an outlier all weekend, and he was so much faster than his team-mate.”With Ferrari reversing their poor form in Melbourne, to be speedier than Mercedes in Bahrain, Hamilton started third, and then dropped to fourth.Yet, despite struggling with his tyres, the Briton demonstrated his class to move past his team-mate, Bottas, Vettel and finally a stricken Leclerc. He added: 'You want to pass someone for the win because you are quicker than them and through a fight. I overtook Charles and raised my hand to him because there was nothing I could do.' It feels weird, and you can't believe your luck in those scenarios but what are you going to do?' On a night where Leclerc impressed, so, too did another of the sport's rising talents, with British teenager Lando Norris driving to his first F1 points, finishing sixth.Norris, 19, cheered on by his father, Adam, and mother, Cisca as well as his elder brother and younger sister, delivered McLaren's best result in over a year in just his second appearance.

Norris, who will return to his McLaren cockpit at the same Bahrain venue tomorrow for this week's test, said: 'The mechanics will have a couple of drinks tonight, but I won't be drinking.' I want to try and stay away from that stuff this year. It's for the better.' This is my chance to do well in Formula One, and this is my career ahead of me. I don’t want to do anything stupid and things can happen when you drink too much.' I will sunbathe tomorrow, have half-a-day-off, before two days of testing next week and then moving on to the next race in China.'

.what a race that was. Worth watching the highlights later on, for sure. Not much more to say apart from Leclerc should have won it. He drove faultlessly all weekend and, apart from a poor first lap or two, was superb. Hamilton was there to take advantage, though, and he drove as well as he could have hoped including some excellent wheel-to-wheel battles with Bottas and Vettel. Bottas still leads the championship but he lacked pace today. A lot of other stories to pick out there: first points for Norris and Albon, a double Renault retirement, Haas's pace disappearing and another Vettel error.Stay tuned for more reaction and analysis from us tomorrow.

I think we struggled at various points. I really struggled at the beginning of the race. Not the pace I wanted to have today. On top I had the mistake with the spin, so not a good evening. It was turning into a tail wind in that corner. I lost the car very suddenly and once I spun it was too late. Unfortunate that we had so much damage with the tyres that it caused the front wing to fail.It was his Leclerc's race to take today.

Disappointing day. Starting from the front and not finishing there is not what we wanted.Vettel, remember, led after the first lap after a lightning start. It went a bit wrong from there, though. Giovinazzi drove into Kvyat there, spinning him around. Verstappen somehow gets ahead of Bottas, not sure if Bottas made a mistake or if Verstappen passed him, there!Leclerc and Hamilton pit!

Quick stops there. Vettel surely will drop behind Hamilton now and Ferrari will have surrendered their 1-2.

Hamilton onto the soft tyres.Verstappen flying now with the fastest lap. This is going to be fun! Bottas finds his way around the outside of Verstappen into turn four, with DRS. P5 for the Finn.Vettel the race leader but will surely stop now.he does.

He looks very quick now, after a slow start. 'I'm quicker, guys,' he says on the radio. And that is one for Ferrari to sort out. Vettel gets wobbly into the back straight and Leclerc might breeze by with DRS.which would take the decision of any team orders out of Ferrari's hands.Leclerc goes around the outside of turn one and INTO THE LEAD.but he goes deep! He keeps the lead! Just. And Vettel gets DRS into turn four.wow. But Leclerc stays ahead.

Rosberg vs Hamilton mark 2. Almost!He pulls out a second lead by the end of the lap. Will he disappear up the road? Quickest on paper is: start on medium for 20 laps, then finish race on hard. But as nobody in the top 10 of the grid will be starting on medium, the second-quickest strategy is looking promising: start on the soft for 15 laps, then hard to the end (1/3)— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport)strategy: there are a few two-stoppers that could also work. The best two-stopper is: start on the soft tyre for 15 laps, then medium for 21 laps, then another set of mediums to the end.

We might see other variations on this theme as well (2/3).— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport)strategy: There’s another one-stop strategy that the teams could also try. Start on soft for 22 laps, then medium to the end. But this one is definitely slower – in theory, at least (3/3).— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport).

Quite possibly he should have. He didn't improve in any of the three sectors on his final run in Q3 and was only just behind Vettel. Here's what he said after qualifying:'I really enjoyed qualifying and it was great to see the progression for us over the weekend.

Congratulations to Charles, he did a great job and deserved to get his first pole today. We've seen strong pace from the Ferraris all weekend long. We've worked very hard to narrow that gap, but they were really fast on the straights and that's ultimately where we lost a lot of the time today.Our car felt okay today; I think this track has never particularly suited our car in the past for whatever reason, but I think we got it into a quite good place today, so hopefully it feels good tomorrow as well. It will be a very hard race, physically challenging and tough on the tyres, but our race pace was good last year, so I'm hopeful it will be good again this year. I love that it's a close and exciting battle, that's really how it should be.' “This first pole position brings me a lot of emotions, even if I’m trying to stay as cool as possible, as there are no points for pole position and the race is tomorrow.

It has been a great day and a great weekend overall for the team so far, so I hope it will continue tomorrow. I said it was a question of putting everything together for qualifying and it seems I did it, unlike what happened in the first race.It’s an amazing feeling but now we have to focus on the race and try to bring home the best possible result tomorrow. I feel more comfortable in the car lap after lap so I’m satisfied.

Before the race we will talk with the team to find the perfect strategy in order to give the Scuderia the best possible result. The start will probably be the key as the track is dirty and it’s easy to have wheelspin.”.and welcome to our coverage for the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix. Well, the Ferrari everyone thought would show up in Melbourne finally showed up in Bahrain yesterday. Charles Leclerc outclassed his Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel (and both Mercedes drivers) to take his maiden pole position in only his second race for Ferrari.Mercedes will be less than pleased to be over 0.3 seconds behind the absolute pace. But given they were further back earlier on in qualifying and in all three practice sessions, to be around about the pace of Vettel in the second Ferrari is not too bad, overall. Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas did a decent enough job to claim the second row. Hamilton was only 0.03s away from Vettel in front.

That he did not improve in any of the three sectors on his second qualifying run and Vettel only had one run in Q3 means he will feel a little disappointed with only P3. The midfield - which was close in 2018 - looks to be even tighter this season.

Haas have put in a very strong performance, in particular Kevin Magnussen. The Dane was just 0.026 away from beating Max Verstappen's time and he left perhaps half a tenth on the table, too, failing to reach his theoretical best lap time by 0.054. Still, it's hugely encouraging for Haas. And a little worrying for Red Bull, especially as Pierre Gasly had another poor session, qualifying only 13th quickest.Another team who will be encouraged will be McLaren. Both drivers made it into the final part of qualifying, with Carlos Sainz in P7 and Lando Norris in P10.

This is the first time the team has had two cars in Q3 since Malaysia 2017. Indeed, it beats anything they did last season (bar perhaps Monaco) on qualifying pace into a cocked hat. Sainz's final Q3 time was not too far off Magnussen's impressive time, either: just 0.056s. The same cannot be said of Renault, with Daniel Ricciardo in 11th and Nico Hulkenberg way down in 17th.There is just over 90 minutes until the lights go out (and the floodlights around the Sakhir circuit go on.) and I'll be here with you for the duration with all the build-up, latest updates and reaction. Last year's Bahrain GP was a thriller and yesterday's qualifying session has left us with a lot of questions. Let's hope we get some answers in the next few hours.Can Charles Leclerc convert his maiden pole into a maiden victory? Will Mercedes bounce back?

Can anyone from outside the top three teams sneak onto the podium?!