Hamilton breaks the track record - but qualifying system is even more broken

The elimination qualifying format is still in place for Bahrain despite the assumption that it would be scrapped immediately. This time round it all started so brightly, with drivers queuing up in the pit lane to get out on track, led by Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari. The Toro Rossos of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen left it very late to get a lap recorded but managed to style it out with impressive guile, getting themselves into the top ten. It then tailed off rather, with the Force India team apparently not timing Sergio Perez’s run very well, and Renault’s Kevin Magnussen – who starts from the pits – using up one of the elimination spots.

Eliminated: Nasr, Haryanto, Palmer, Magnussen, Perez, Ericsson, Wehrlein.

You have to laugh when F1 makes things worse for itself – for this part of the session, the lights didn’t change from red to green, but the 15-minute timer was ticking down, meaning the drivers were losing time before they were eventually flagged on to the track. Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat had another dodgy qualifying, albeit better than in Melbourne. The Toro Rossos made their exit at this point, but those kids love to chase the leaders - they'll be happy to start further down the grid rather than get caught up too much with the battles of the big boys.

Eliminated: Kvyat, Button, Gutierrez, Vandoorne, Sainz, Verstappen, Grosjean.

Lewis Hamilton’s first Q3 lap in his Mercedes went wrong at the final turn as he ran wide and ended up fourth-fastest on track – but he followed that up with the fastest-ever lap time at Bahrain to secure pole position. Williams were disappointed to see the Red Bull of a delighted Daniel Ricciardo pushing them down the grid.

Eliminated: Hulkenberg, Massa, Bottas, Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Vettel.

Nico Rosberg, following in his team-mate’s wake, didn’t have enough fire to improve on Hamilton’s time, and didn’t have enough time to give it another go – but that’s another Mercedes front-row lock-out. Hamilton was thrilled, obviously - perhaps a little too much bearing in mind his radio comments and this tweet.

This qualifying system doesn’t work. It lacks structure and drama, and though nobody would doubt that F1 racing needs a little more excitement at times, qualifying needed no amendments. It was fun, admittedly, to see Lewis Hamilton’s lap record – but how dull to then sit around for three more minutes until the provisional pole became actual pole.

A Mercedes front row; a Ferrari second row. It’s almost like we’ve been here before.

Not a shock exactly, but a surprise and a noteworthy piece of driving – Stoffel Vandoorne, Fernando Alonso’s debutant deputy for the weekend, outqualified his experienced McLaren team-mate Jenson Button, who had such excellent practice sessions. That bodes very well for the race, if the McLarens' reliability continues to improve.

Rosberg – Hamilton - Raikkonen