Red Bull bid with Verstappen on pole position. Photo: Getty.
The Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull), who aspires to achieve a third title in a row, will start from ‘pole’ tomorrow at the Bahrain Grand Prix, the first of the F1 World Cup, which is held at the Sakhir circuit, where his Mexican teammate Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez will start next to him from the front row.
Verstappen, 25, achieved the twenty-second ‘pole’ of his Formula One career, by covering the 5,412 meters of the circuit on the outskirts of Manama in one minute, 30 seconds and 282 thousandths, 138 less than ‘Checo’ who will start with him from the front row.
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Max Verstappen takes the first pole of 2023 in Bahrain!#BahrainGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/vZlHGDbbmr
—Formula 1 (@F1) March 4, 2023
The Ferraris took the second row. The Monegasque Charles Leclerc, who was 292 thousandths behind, will start third, with Carlos Sainz -446 behind Verstappen– by his side; while Fernando Alonso, six tenths behind ‘Mad Max’, will face his first race as an Aston Martin driver from fifth place on the grid.
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Englishman George Russell (Mercedes) will start from the third row, next to the Asturian double world champion; and from the fourth they will do their respective companions: the seven-time British intercontinental champion Lewis Hamilton and the Canadian Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), eighth this Saturday.
The Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and the German Nico Hülkenberg (Haas), who finished ninth and tenth, respectively, the main timed, they will start from the fifth row of the starting formation of the first race of the year; planned to 57 laps, to complete a route of 308.2 kilometers.
