Mercedes AMG Petronas
Lewis Hamilton set the fastest ever lap at Sakhir as he secured pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix, ahead of Nico Rosberg, the 51st of his career.
Hamilton had trailed Rosberg throughout practice and went wide exiting the final corner during his initial Q3 run, to leave him down in fourth.
However, on his second run he posted a time of 1:29.493 to break the 11-year lap record and claim pole position.
Rosberg was 0.077s adrift in second position as Mercedes secured another front row lock-out.
Ferrari ran twice in Q3 but neither Sebastian Vettel nor Kimi Räikkönen could match Mercedes, as the German ended half a second behind the reigning World Champion.
Daniel Ricciardo was fifth for Red Bull on his sole Q3 run, ahead of Williams pair Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa, with Hülkenberg half a second adrift of the duo.
Romain Grosjean narrowly missed out on Q3 after a late improvement in Q2 from Hülkenberg, while Toro Rosso claimed 10th and 11th, with Max Verstappen ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr.
Stoffel Vandoorne out-qualified Jenson Button on his Formula 1 debut to take 12th position, with the pair split by Haas’ Esteban Gutiérrez.
Daniil Kvyat was the first driver to be eliminated in Q2 and will start the race from 15th spot.
Pascal Wehrlein set a fine lap to record 16th position for Manor, ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, though both fell at the first hurdle of Q1.
Force India was caught out by the elimination system, leaving Sergio Pérez a lowly 18th, while Renault struggled and could manage only 19th and 20th, with Kevin Magnussen notionally ahead of Jolyon Palmer.
The Dane will have to start from the pit lane after failing to stop at the weighbridge during Friday’s second practice session.
Rio Haryanto will therefore move up to 20th on the grid, while Felipe Nasr will be at the back after locking up into Turn 1 on his flying lap.
