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. 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. But we have a good car – a good race car as well, which at the end of the day is the most important. “I have been very far off all weekend, more than 0.5secs, so to be fighting for pole I was very happy.

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