Bahrain Grand Prix: Charles Leclerc takes pole position for Ferrari

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc beat Red Bull's Max Verstappen to pole position in a thrilling qualifying session at the start of Formula 1's new era.

After a difficult session Leclerc put it all together for his final lap and beat the world champion by 0.123 seconds at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Carlos Sainz had earlier been the faster Ferrari driver but slipped down to third, just 0.129secs off pole.

Lewis Hamilton was fifth for Mercedes behind Red Bull's Sergio Perez.

Hamilton was 0.680secs off pole as Mercedes' pre-event predictions that they were not yet on the pace proved correct.

His new team-mate George Russell was ninth after making an error at Turn One on his only lap in the final session of qualifying.

Russell was beaten by his Mercedes predecessor Valtteri Bottas, an impressive sixth in his first race for the Alfa Romeo team, ahead of the equally impressive Kevin Magnussen on his return to F1 with the Haas team after a year away.

Alpine's Fernando Alonso was eighth ahead of Russell, with Alpha Tauri's Pierre Gasly taking the final place in the top 10.

This is the first race after the biggest regulation change in 40 years, in which the cars have been fundamentally revised in an attempt to close up the field and make the racing more competitive.

Ferrari have been through a difficult two or three seasons and had targeted this year as a chance to return to the front of F1, so Leclerc was thrilled to see the effort that had been put in had paid off.

«It feels good,» he said. «The last years have been incredibly difficult for the team and we were hoping these new rules would be an opportunity for us and we have worked incredibly hard to be in a position to fight for better places.»

Leclerc had been the faster Ferrari driver all