Jack Doohan will start P11 for the F1 Bahrain GP after a solid qualifying session that saw him narrowly miss out on Q3. The Alpine driver impressed early on, running as high as fifth in Q1, but ended up just outside the top ten in a very close session.
Doohan shines early but just misses out in F1 Bahrain GP qualifying
The Aussie showed solid pace from the start of the session, comfortably making it through Q1 as he outpaced teammate Pierre Gasly. Despite a small off in FP3 that disrupted his preparation, he delivered one of his most promising qualifying sessions yet in Formula 1.
“The soft last night was good. Soft was going to be good this morning in P3 until I made a little excursion, and then it was more solid all through quali today. It just shows you have to be on it the whole time.”
Doohan’s Q2 lap wasn’t quite enough to make it into the top ten as he failed to make the big step his French stablemate produced, but he finished ahead of Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. Starting P11, he’s in a good spot to go after points in Sunday’s race.
“We just have to keep our heads down, we’re on the brink of points and it’s so ultra close.”
Carrying confidence into race day
Even though missing out on Q3 stung, Doohan is taking the positives and carrying that momentum into race day.
His Q2 lap was less than 0.2s quicker than his best time in Q1. Gasly found a whopping 0.8s between those sessions.
“Yeah, certainly. It’s a difficult and disappointing place to be now, knowing how strong the whole session was until then. But it’s good confidence to keep in the back and good confidence going into the race tomorrow.”
Confidence on the rise as Alpine show signs of progress
The pace in Bahrain marked a noticeable step forward for both Doohan and Alpine. With Pierre Gasly making it into Q3 and beating Norris, Verstappen and Hamilton, Doohan is happy with the team’s overall progress and felt he had the pace to be in the mix as well. He believes that with a slightly cleaner lap, a top-eight result was possible.
“Ifs, buts and maybes was P5 — that’s P6 to P8 positioning and that’s where I was expecting it to be. So yeah, it’s good to see and puts us in a good place for tomorrow.”
Solid foundation from Bahrain testing
Having had productive pre-season testing in Bahrain earlier in the year, Doohan felt more prepared heading into the weekend. That extra track time helped him settle into the car quickly and build confidence as the sessions progressed.
“We had three days of testing where we were decently quick and we had a good foundation to start on.”
Strategy and tyre wear key to Bahrain GP
With track temperatures expected to stay high even into the evening, tyre wear is set to play a major role in Sunday’s race. Drivers have tested all three compounds across practice, and conditions will likely shift again once the sun goes down.
“It’s just going to be a long, hot race. I think it’s going to be very dependent on what conditions we end up seeing as it comes close to 6pm tomorrow.”
With a strong Saturday behind him and the top ten within reach, Doohan will be aiming to move forward and fight for his first F1 points in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
