Summary of the Saturday on Sakhir: One-two for Mercedes as Verstappen close 3rd

Now that the penultimate GP of the season is approaching and the starting grid has also been assigned, it's time to take a quick look at the most important Formula 1 news of the day. Who were the winners and losers in qualifying, and what does this predict for the second consecutive race on the Bahrain circuit?

During qualifying Max Verstappen managed to conquer the third spot with a strong lap, and only had to let the Mercedesses in front of him. This despite the fact that the Dutchman was the fastest in the last free practice, as well as in Q1 and Q2 of the qualifying battle. This makes Verstappen’s goal a straightforward one: to push George Russell and Valtteri Bottas in the hopes that, when it comes to racepace, the Red Bull can have edge past in the race.

Bottas was able to secure pole position at Sakhir, although the difference with Mercedes overtaking George Russell was minimal: 0.026 seconds. Leclerc also surprised Ferrari by setting the fourth fastest time on the field. View the full results of the Bahrain qualifying session here.

Another loss for Alex Albon in the qualifying match within the Red Bull garage. The current teammate of Verstappen got stuck on P12 and therefore did not make it to Q3. Albon's fastest time was more than half a second slower than the Dutchman's, and in the midst of the public debate over his seat at Red Bull Racing next year, the Thai-British driver is now under even more pressure to perform on Sunday.

Despite the poor result, Albon argues not to be dissatisfied with his fastest lap, and predicts the slipstream and DRS will be key factors in tomorrow’s GP.

Also some interesting Formula 2 news today: Yuki Tsuonade won the feature race in F2 and now officially has the required amount of points for a super license. The road to a Formula 1 debut is now open for the Japanese driver, and a seat at AlphaTauri seems to be certain in everything but name.