Today started the domination of Max
 Red Bulls Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamiltons Mercedes to take a stunning pole position at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.The Dutchman was 0.388 seconds quicker than Hamilton, as Red Bull made good on the pace the world champion had always said they had before the season.Hamiltons team-mate Valtteri Bottas was third, ahead of Ferraris Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gaslys Alpha Tauri.Red Bulls Sergio Perez was 11th and Sebastian Vettel 18th for Aston Martin.

Red Bull had looked the fastest car in pre-season testing, at least in Verstappens hands, and Hamilton had said before this race that Mercedes were not the quickest.Verstappen had played down his status as favourite, but his confident demeanour and body language told another story, and the cars pace on track and his driving underlined it.Verstappen was quickest in all three practice sessions, and again in the first qualifying session, and his pace in the final session was everything he had been promising up to that point.Verstappen pipped Hamilton by only 0.023secs on his first lap in the final session, but pulled a storming lap out of the bag on his last run.Verstappen also topped each practice session before taking poleOf course we already had a great test week, Verstappen said. There are no guarantees, but the whole week the car has been working so well and been really enjoyable to drive. It all worked out perfectly so of course very happy with pole position.My first lap in Q3 wasnt amazing, so I knew there was more in it. I never knew how much but the balance was there and I could push more and luckily when it mattered we could perform.In general the car has been working really well in short and long runs.Hamilton said: Amazing. Max did such a great job. He was so fast on that last lap. Absolutely gave it everything I had, but unfortunately it wasnt good enough.It was the best I could do. I got absolutely everything out of the car - we did such a good job since testing, the guys back at the factory, to get the car where we needed it to be closer to the Red Bulls. In testing, we thought we were further behind.-Max after the qualification.