Pierre Gasly expressed surprise at his strong qualifying performance in Bahrain, where he will start the race from the third row of the grid. The Alpine driver finished fifth, just 0.3 seconds off the pole position pace, and was promoted to fourth due to Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s grid penalty, placing him ahead of Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. Gasly remains optimistic, stating, “If we can be a pain …” as he looks forward to the race.