Verstappen fastest in 3rd and final practice at Bahrain GP

The Finn, brought in by Mercedes this year as the replacement for retired world champion Nico Rosberg, beat Hamilton by just 0.023 seconds. “It’s my fifth season now in Formula One so it took a few races (to be exact) but I’ve got it and hopefully it’s the first of many”.

“As a team we need to enjoy this [pole] for a short period of time”, he said. “The most important thing is to be ready for tomorrow’s race”.

Rosberg was amongst the first to congratulate the pole sittter.

“Congrats Valtteri Bottas 1st pole!”

Lauding his Mercedes team mate, Hamilton said: “Big congratulations to Valtteri”. “He’s been working so hard and today he was just quicker – he just did a better job, so hats off to him”.

Ferrari was expected to challenge Mercedes for pole position this weekend and had looked closely matched in practice.

Lewis Hamilton had won seven consecutive poles leading into Bahrain.

Hulkenberg described his lap as “one of the best I can recall – very proud and very happy”.

Mercedes locked out the front row of the grid in Bahrain for the first time this season with joint-leader of the World Drivers’ Championship Sebastian Vettel in third.

Hamilton held the previous track qualifying record of 1:29.493 set a year ago in Q3, and Bottas’ pole-winning time beat it by.724 of a second.

The McLaren man qualified 15th behind the four who were eliminated – Daniil Kvyat of Toro Rosso, Canadian rookie Lance Stroll of Williams, Pascal Wehrlein of Sauber and Esteban Ocon of Force India.

“China we were 1.3 off, I was 1.3 off pole, and here we are less than eight tenths off, so it is about half a second turnaround, and for what we don’t know”, Ricciardo said.

And, perhaps unsurprisingly, the 86-year-old, who on Friday admitted he had never exchanged a single word with Sean Bratches – the American now operating as the sport’s commercial chief – sat with two of his allies in Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and former Renault boss Flavio Briatore, rather than any of the new regime.

By the half-hour mark, both Ferrari and Mercedes were doing little bar check out their cars with slow uncompetitive laps as a strong wind arrived.

The session was briefly halted some 20 minutes from the end after Haas driver Romain Grosjean spun across the track and into the barriers, damaging his car’s front wing.

Grosjean set the 11th-fastest time in Q1 with a lap of 1:31.691 and Magnussen was 20th quickest with a lap of 1:32.900.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was a bit disappointed with third.

My first run was okay, but already our times were close, and when I saw them I thought, ‘Wow!’ Then I lost quite a bit of time on my second run and he found some great pace.