F1 | Mercedes, Toto Wolff: “Watch out for Verstappen”

Surgical as (almost) always, the Mercedes have secured, once again this season, the front row, with Lewis Hamilton's pole position. The seven-time world champion conquers pole number ninety-eight and who knows, by the end of the year, he won't reach the round figure. The silver arrows, as well as almost all the drivers in the top 10, apart from the AlphaTauri, will wear the medium compound at the start: strategy will be fundamental, due to the high temperatures in Bahrain, despite the race taking place at night. Toto Wolff's attention is entirely on Max Verstappen's strategy, the only one capable of putting a spoke in the wheels of the two Mercedes drivers.

"Has it been a good day. We weren't entirely sure about Verstappen, whether he still had some tricks up his sleeve to unleash at the right time, so we're happy to have secured the front row. The race will be complicated: Verstappen has a second hard tire and will most likely opt for a medium – hard – hard strategy, which, on paper, is the fastest. But we will do everything we can to play it. It will be exciting, we will try to put on a show under the lights of Bahrain".