Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia: Qualifying Recap

Both drivers exited qualifying after Q1 – the opening round of the three-stage knockout qualifying format, with only the top 16 progressing on to Q2. With three new sets of Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires utilized by both Bearman and Ocon, their respective Q1 fastest laps came on their third and final runs. Bearman clocked a 1:37.980 for P18, with Ocon directly behind his teammate in P19 on a 1:38.233 lap.

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen claimed position in Q3 (1:35.130) ahead of the Scuderia Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton (1:35.428).

Ollie Bearman:

“It’s been a really tough weekend so far. On my second run, I locked my front left, the outside front, into Turn 1, which was super unusual and weird and normally tells you something’s up with the brakes, so we need to look into that. I went into my final run with a lack of confidence, and left some time on the table, definitely. On top of that, to be honest, we’ve been slow all weekend, on my side. Going into FP3 with only two push laps, you don’t have enough time to fix mistakes, so I went into qualifying guessing what to do with the car and my driving. I don’t think we’re better than P15, but I definitely think if I had a clean weekend, I would’ve gotten into Q2.”

Esteban Ocon:

“It’s slightly disappointing. I’m not saying we would’ve blasted through to Q2, but I think we performed better in the other sessions when we were on track with everyone at the same time, pushing to do the laps right there. It’s a shame that we couldn’t repeat that. The car was working well, the team did a good job the whole weekend, and I’m happy with the job we’ve done. We just need to get more in the race tomorrow, it’s going to be a long one with a lot of strategies. We’ll try to use all the opportunities that come our way."

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“It was obviously a very tough qualifying. I feel like Sepang’s circuit characteristics, with all the conditions, really exposed our weakness. If you look at the field, we’re the only cars doing three runs in Q1, with a run profile that looks different from others, showing that we have a very specific issue others don’t have. It’s not as simple enough to say we don’t have enough grip, there is that of course, but certain areas of the car are not very strong, in today’s qualifying session, were really exposed by it.

“Operationally, we made a mistake on Ollie’s car in FP2, so that meant in the session he couldn’t get any information, and he couldn’t recover in FP3 with him because the tires only last one lap. Unlike Baku, where you could keep running and recovering, it wasn’t the case here, so it goes to show that everything counts. As a team, even though it’s tough, there are lots of specific things we need to look into. I’m confident that when we look into it and understand it, we can put a solution in place, like we have done every other time. It’s very tough, but that’s what we’ve got to focus on.”