The 2023 Formula One season got off to a scintillating start with an intense and hotly contested qualifying session under the Sakhir lights on Saturday night in Bahrain. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claimed the pole position, beating his teammate Sergio Perez to the top spot.

Verstappen set a blistering time of 1m 29.897s on his first Q3 run before improving to 1m 29.708s the next time around, edging out Perez by 0.138s and securing his 21st career pole position. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz locked out the second row of the grid, with Leclerc ahead despite not completing a second run in the pole position shootout. He instead saved a set of tyres for race day.

Fernando Alonso continued his impressive form, guiding his Alpine to fifth place on the grid, ahead of George Russell and reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton, who couldn’t join the fight for the pole. After missing pre-season testing due to wrist injuries, Lance Stroll battled his way to eighth place, with Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and the returning Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) rounding out the top ten.

McLaren’s Lando Norris just missed out on a Q3 spot by a couple of tenths, putting his MCL60 in 11th place on the grid. Yuki Tsunoda was the lead AlphaTauri driver in 14th position, with Williams’ Alex Albon making it to Q2 but abandoning his sole flying lap and ending the phase without a time.

There were some surprises in Q1, with Pierre Gasly being eliminated in P20 during his first qualifying session with the new team Alpine. His lap time was deleted, meaning he will start the race from the back of the grid.

The stage is set for an exciting season opener, with Verstappen and Perez looking strong for Red Bull and Ferrari showing promising signs. The battle for supremacy in F1 continues, and fans can’t wait to see what the Bahrain Grand Prix has in store. The race begins at 8:30pm IST, which is less than two hours from now. You can watch it on F1 TV app in India.