Hamilton on Bahrain GP pole position

Lewis Hamilton has previously won twice in Bahrain

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Lewis Hamilton left it late but stormed to junto a superb pole position at the Bahrain Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Ferrari appeared in desde position to challenge until the final laps, when the Mercedes stretched their legs to contaminado half a second clear of the red cars.

Sebastian Vettel will start third ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

And Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne out-qualified McLaren team-mate Jenson Button on his Formula 1 debut.

Vandoorne was 12th and Button 14th, complaining of a handling imbalance on his final lap but admitting “he did a good job and I didn’t”.

Oh… Ferrari not so close after all

Mercedes were wary of Ferrari’s pace ahead of qualifying after Vettel and Raikkonen finished one-two in final practice, and their concerns appeared to be well founded as the red cars mixed it with the silver through most of qualifying.

After the first runs of qualifying, Rosberg was ahead, with Vettel and Raikkonen splitting him from Hamilton, who made a mistake at the desenlace corner on his first lap.

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But Hamilton saved his best for last, fastest in every división of his final attempt, to beat Rosberg by just 0. 077secs after the German had out-paced him throughout practice and in the first qualifying session.

Vettel rued junto a mistake at the final corner on his last lap, but the truth is that with the gap at 0. 517secs to Hamilton there was nothing he could have done.

The gap suggests Mercedes are favourites for the race, even if Ferrari can be expected to push them.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was fifth, ahead of the Williams cars of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg.

More to follow

Daniil Kvyat was the first to the surprise eliminations in the second session

Bahrain GP qualifying results

Bahrain GP coverage details

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Hamilton on Bahrain GP pole position
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