Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying: Max Verstappen on pole as George Russell investigated by FIA

It was up to Red Bull's rivals to close that gap and that appeared to be the case through free practice this week heading into qualifying.

But the real test was always going to come in qualifying with every team turning their cars up to the max.

Alpine have more work to do than any other team with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly finishing at the very back of the grid after Q1.

The first two sessions also showed that Ferrari have got the pace to compete with Red Bull while Mercedes and McLaren still have some work to do.

There was also an issue for Mercedes to think about after qualifying with George Russell being investigated after the session for failing to follow the race director's instructions relating to maximum delta time in Q1.

That seemingly left a straight shoot-out between Max Verstappen and the two Ferrari drivers for pole in Q3.

Verstappen had just pipped Leclerc to provisional pole in the first run, although there was just six-hundredths of a second between them.

It was all set up for a close fight between the two of them, but Leclerc failed to deliver when it mattered most.

Verstappen ended up edging out the Ferrari driver by a couple of tenths, but Russell surprised many by taking third on the grid.

The reigning world champion conceded he wasn't completely confident about taking pole in qualifying and is ready for a close battle on Saturday.

"It was a lot of fun," he said.

"The track had a lot of grip but with the wind the last two days, it was tricky to get the whole lap together. It was the same in qualifying.

"To really get everything out of it in Q3 was a little more difficult but I'm very happy to be on pole.

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"It was a little bit unexpected but luckily in qualifying the car came to us and I felt a bit happier with the whole car."

But Leclerc doesn't share Verstappen's optimism for a close battle, suggesting Red Bull will be far ahead in the race.

"I’m confident we did a step forward but we have to wait and see tomorrow how much of a step forward we did," he said.

"We really think that Red Bull is still ahead by quite a bit, in the race I mean. So we’ll see, but if there’s an opportunity as always I’ll go for it, and we’ll see what happens tomorrow."