Lewis Hamilton Shows His Class to Claim Pole Position at 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix

Come Saturday evening at the Australian Grand Prix, on a day Lewis Hamilton eased to his 50th career pole position despite a rule change intended to put an end to Mercedes' run of front-row lockouts, the final nails were being pounded into the coffin of Formula One's new, elimination-style qualifying format.

Or so we thought, anyway.

As you would expect of a regulation change confirmed less than a month until the start of a new season, the overhaul of qualifying—which gained the "unanimous" approval of the F1 Commission, per the FIA's official website—had failed spectacularly. 

And for once, those within the paddock—notorious for their conflicting priorities and regular acts of selfishness—were in complete unison.

Toto Wolff, the man who has led Mercedes to two consecutive drivers' and constructors' world championships, was too embarrassed to celebrate his team's 37th pole in 39 attempts, simply referring to the hour-long session as "rubbish," per Sky Sports' Matthew Morlidge.

His opposite number at Red Bull, Christian Horner, told the same source F1 "should apologise" for the farce and "address it immediately," while Sebastian Vettel declared it was "definitely the wrong way to go," claiming "plenty of engineers" had "predicted what would happen" and suggesting the sport had ignored the warning signs.

A range of flaws of the elimination-style structure had been exposed at Albert Park, from the indigestible chaos of Q1 to the empty track at the supposed crescendo of qualifying, which gave Vettel—the most intense driver on the grid, remember—the time to change into his jeans and change trainers before qualifying had officially concluded.

Perhaps the most depressing—and certainly the most disturbing—side-effect of the new format, though, was it had taken the emphasis away from a driver's skill.

Rather than marvelling at the sight of Hamilton waltzing with his Mercedes W07 on those "sexy laps"—as he told Sky Sports' William Esler—or Vettel jostling his Ferrari SF16-H to third, watching the countdown clock became the aim of the game in a session in which the slowest drivers were eliminated at 90-second intervals. 

These artists' work—not only the Hamiltons and Vettels, but the Nico Rosbergs and Kimi Raikkonens, the Fernando Alonsos and Jenson Buttons, the Daniel Ricciardos and Max Verstappens—was almost overlooked, and the pleasure of the perfect lap was reduced to an afterthought.

At a time F1 is making a conscious effort to return drivers to the superhero status enjoyed by previous generations, the elimination-style format was immediately deemed unfit for purpose.

But despite the criticism of the new system, the F1 Commission's failure to ensure a return to the previous, knockout format meant it remained in place for this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix, where the problems of Albert Park reappeared.

Again it failed to produce a truly major shock. Again the early stages of the session were breathless and difficult to follow.

Again drivers were eliminated as they sat helplessly in the garage, restricted by their fuel loads and tyre allocations. Again those in the midst of flying laps were prevented from finishing them after running out of time.

And again the serious on-track action was completed long before the chequered flag waved.

But, at the very least, the session offered a reminder that the drivers very much remain heroes as Hamilton's 51st pole proved to be one of his most dramatic yet.

Following a race of mixed feelings in Australia, where his pace advantage was undone by a substandard start, Hamilton had looked less convincing than Rosberg in all three practice sessions, as well as Q1, at Sakhir.

Despite outpacing his team-mate in Q2, his chances of winning the pole seemed all but over after the first runs of Q3, when Hamilton ran wide at the final corner—a common error at the Bahrain track—lost momentum on the run to the line and found himself in fourth.

Rather than allowing that unforced error to define his session, however, the three-time world champion remained calm and composed. He made sure his second attempt was the one that really counted, transforming a deficit of 0.730 seconds into an advantage of 0.077 seconds, per the FOM television feed.

Per the official F1 Twitter account, Hamilton's pole time of one minute, 29.493 was the quickest-ever lap in the Bahrain circuit's 12-year history—faster than even the cars powered by the much-romanticised V8 and V10 engines of years gone by—validating Mercedes' commitment to the V6 turbo technology.

And the raw, relentless nature of Hamilton's now-or-never lap was deeply refreshing in a qualifying session borne of artificiality and dominated by numbers.

As reported by Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble prior to qualifying, the teams will meet with FIA president Jean Todt and Bernie Ecclestone ahead of the race to determine the future of Saturday sessions, with "extra tyres for Q3" and a single-lap shootout to be discussed before the prospect of reverting to the 2006-15 format is even considered.

Yet, in a sense, it doesn't matter which option they choose or, indeed, how many gimmicks the rulemakers introduce.

Because, ultimately, as Hamilton proved in such spectacular fashion in Bahrain, the very best will always rise to the top.

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