Max Verstappen was downbeat heading into the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, and his worst fears were ultimately realised in qualifying, where he was only seventh, nearly 0.6s slower than pole-sitter Oscar Piastri.
Throw in the fact that Pierre Gasly, in an Alpine which is last in the constructors' with zero points, is ahead of him by the tune of 0.207s on pure merit, the salt rubs a little deeper into the wounds.
Helmut Marko tried to soothe those fears after the session, claiming Verstappen had a brake problem - but this was not the only excuse in Verstappen's mind as Red Bull frantically searched for a set-up to extract any performance from the RB21, but it was just not with the brakes he struggled.
Whether it be top speed or cornering speeds, the package is well off the pace, with the world champion firmly in the middle of the pack for grunt and losing four-tenths alone to Piastri in the middle sector.
The problem lies within the fact that the RB21 is a recalcitrant car to set-up changes and despite working at the problem throughout practice, qualifying data paints a glum picture for driver and team.
View lap times, sector times and top speeds below. The article continues below.
McLaren leads the way
About McLaren, Piastri stewed sovereignly to pole position. The gap to Russell, who was later dropped one place, may have been smaller than expected, but Piastri was not in danger for a moment. Compared to Russell and Leclerc, Piastri actually only loses time on the back straight, start/finish and at turns 9 and 10, proving once again that McLaren is very strong all round, both in the corners and on the straight.
On the road, Piastri only took pole by 0.168s from George Russell, who was later demoted to third after a Mercedes mix-up in the pit-lane after Esteban Ocon's crash in Q2, but it did not mean that Piastri's second career-pole was under any significant threat.
The Australian only lost time on the straights and in Turns 9 and 10, but was otherwise serene as he set himself up to assume command of the championship for the first time in his career.
View the comparison between Piastri, Russell and Leclerc below.
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Join RacingNews365’s Ian Parkes and Nick Golding as they reflect on qualifying at the Bahrain Grand Prix which saw a couple of surprise results!
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