The Latest Breaking News from Red Bull

Norris and Piastri showed strong one-lap pace amid an extremely tight qualifying battle behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

The Mexican finished the Q3 session 0.358 seconds off Verstappen, with Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Carlos Sainz all just pipping him.

Formula One faced a crisis in 2020, but a documentary series sparked a resurgence, setting the stage for the 2024 season.

Although Red Bull had been predicted to resume its 2023 dominance after testing, Verstappen had not headlined any of the sessions leading up to the final stage of qualifying as Ferrari and Mercedes largely took the limelight. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc headed Q1 and Q2 respectively, but the Ferrari…

With all the attention on the Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, the world champion made the perfect start to his title defence

While Charles Leclerc was unable to repeat his session-topping Q2 time, clearing the way for Max Verstappen to grab pole position, Russell led the Mercedes charge by running third fastest.

Max Verstappen's quest for a fourth consecutive Formula One world championship began in style on Friday with the Red Bull ace claiming pole for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

The reigning champion had taken a back seat during the opening two stages of qualifying but, when it came down to Q3, he set a demanding benchmark of a 1m29.421s - and then beat his own effort amid the final runs to settle on a 1m29.179s.

Verstappen will start ahead of Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and George Russell (Mercedes) after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.