Red Bull showed that it was still top dog in the F1 paddock with an emphatic pole for Max Verstappen for this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Mercedes' George Russell.
Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez were also on the pace, with Fernando Alonso set to start tomorrow's race from P6 and also within four tenths of the top time in the final round of qualifying.
McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had to settle for seventh and eighth, while Lewis Hamilton looked off-colour and was only ninth quickest when the chequered flag came out.
Three free practice sessions had seen three different drivers and three separate teams top the timesheets, meaning there was no clear favourite for who would take the first pole position of the season in Bahrain on Friday. Of course Max Verstappen was very much in the mix - surely Red Bull had been sandbagging up to now? - but Ferrari and Mercedes were looking quicker than many had forecast, and Aston Martin and McLaren were also firmly in the running as the sun set over Sakhir.
Q1: Sainz tops first round of qualifying as Hamilton labours
Ferrari and Alpine were quick to dispatch their cars out of pit lane on medium tyres as soon as the lights went green. Carlos Sainz claimed first honours with a time of 1:31.208s pipping Charles Leclerc by half a tenth while Pierre Gasly had his first flier deleted for running wide in turn 13, leaving Esteban Ocon alone in flying the flag for the French team.
Others were now joining the action and were straight onto the soft compound. Nico Hulkenberg, Alex Albon, Logan Sargeant, Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo all promptly moved ahead of Ferrari, and then normality was restored by Max verstappen putting Red Bull on top with a time of 1:30.031s, ahead of Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez.
Ferrari were now back out, this time on the softs. Sainz went top with a new fastest lap of 1:29.909s while Leclerc was just sixth ahead of George Russell, whose Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton was outside the top ten and throwing up huge showers of sparks from underneath the W15. Once the first wave of fast laps was complete Ricciardo was on the bubble and the five drivers at risk of being eliminated were the two Saubers of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas along with Haas' Kevin Magnussen and the two Alpines, who were painfully slowest of all.
After a brief return to pit lane, everyone bar Sainz was back out for another push with less than four minutes remaining in Q1. Those who were feeling secure - like Alonso and Russell - were on used tyres but those feeling under threat like Hamilton and Ricciardo had already needed to sacrifice a second set of softs that they could ill-afford from their allocation.
Zhou, Bottas and Magnussen all improved their times, and suddenly Hamilton was in the drop zone. He managed to move out of danger, but only up to P10. With more cars completing their laps, the two Saubers were quickly shunted back down into the bottom five and duly eliminated, along with both Alpines and Williams' Logan Sargeant.
Q2: Leclerc takes top honours as Red Bull finally sparks into life
Having just survived the cut, Haas duo Hulkenberg and Magnussen led the field back out on track for the start of the second round of qualifying, along with Lance Stroll who had leapt up to P2 on fresh softs at the end of Q1 in the Aston Martin. However it was McLaren's Lando Norris who now went top with a time of 1:29.941s, 0.683s ahead of team mate Oscar Piastri, with Stroll third. Alonso then split the two papaya cars to go second, and then it was Leclerc who pipped Alonso in turn.
Then came the moment we were waiting for, as Red Bull finally showed their hand: Max Verstappen slammed in a time of 1:29.374s to go half a second ahead of his team mate Sergio Perez at the top. Lewis Hamilton found more pace and popped into the relative safety of P6 ahead of Sainz and Piastri, with Russell ninth ahead of Stroll. Just outside the top ten - and therefore at risk of missing the cut - was Hulkenberg, who was just 0.015s behind the Aston. Tsunoda, Ricciardo and Albon were also in danger along with Magnussen whose first flying lap had been deleted leaving him timeless.
Everyone was soon scrambling down pit lane for one last run., and the reason for the panic was made crystal clear as Hulkenberg surged to second dividing the two Red Bulls, signalling no one was fully safe. Then Leclerc went top ahead of Verstappen and Sainz tucked into third ahead of Alonso. Both Mercedes were briefly pushed out of the top ten but Russell responded and went sixth, while Hamilton did even better and took fourth. Perez was only eighth, but like Verstappen he hadn't gone out on new softs at the end and therefore had not been able to improve on his original time.
The two McLarens just scraped through in ninth and tenth, leaving Tsunoda on the wrong side of the cut along with Stroll, Albon, Ricciardo and Magnussen.
Q3: Verstappen stamps his authority on the field with first pole of 2024
With the preamble out of the way it was time for one last round to decide the order of the front five rows of the grid in tomorrow's race. Hulkenberg was again first out, albeit on used soft tyres, and his time was immediately beaten by Lando Norris and then by George Russell going quicker still on new softs. Verstappen duly swept imperiously to the top with a time of 1:29.421s on fresh tyres of his own, which was half a tenth clear of Leclerc who had been on a lightly used set. The Monegasque was provisionally second ahead of Russell, Sainz, Norris and Perez while Hamilton was only seventh ahead of Hulkenberg and Piastri.
Alonso had held off, and when the track became quiet he came out for a single run on a new set of softs to go third in the Aston ahead of Russell. By the time he was done, the rest of the field was remerging from pit lane for their final runs. Leclerc improved his time but remained second while Russell inched ahead of Alonso for third; Hamilton had no such luck and found himself mired in a disappointing P9.
With a sense of inevitability, Verstappen then put the boot in with a final lap clocking in at 1:29.179s. It put him two tenths quicker than Leclerc followed by Russell and Sainz, with Perez ending up fifth ahead of Alonso, Norris and Piastri.
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