Third place was tolerable for Max Verstappen despite finishing just 0.056s off pole in qualifying for the Sakhir Grand Prix.

Red Bull traditionally aren't well-suited to power-sensitive circuits and perhaps feared the worst on Bahrain's 'Outer Circuit' which skips the technical middle sector of the traditional F1 layout.

But with teams still having to run similar levels of downforce to navigate the corners that are left, Verstappen has been able to keep in touch with Mercedes, if, once again, he as unable to beat them.

“I'm used to sitting in this chair, it might actually have my prints” he joked after finishing third in qualifying for the ninth time in 2020.

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"It was close yes, but in the end third is fine. It's fine margins but overall, on a track like this with a lot of straights, we can be pleased with this.

“After that first run I was two-tenths behind, so I knew it was going to be difficult, but you always try to be as close as you can, and at the end, to be within a tenth wasn't bad.

"Of course, Valtteri didn't have a tow and didn't improve on his final lap, so to be P3 is good for us."

Last weekend Verstappen was left unhappy at Red Bull going conservative with tyre strategy in the race.

But for this Sunday the approach is already different as Max will start on the softs compared to the Mercedes' ahead on mediums.

“Let's see – I'm starting on a different tyre already, so that's going to be interesting,” he said on his victory chances.

“Last week, our long runs, they looked quite good but then again in the race, we just came a bit short, so that was a bit of a shame, but let's see if it's going to be any better this weekend.

“Last week still, I think we could have done a better job, and a little bit of a different strategy, but I think we all learn so that was again a moment that you learn from, and we'll see what we have to do tomorrow.”

And later asked if Red Bull had prioritised top speed to help overtaking or tyre management, Verstappen replied: "A bit of both, you have to look after the tyres, but whatever we do we won't be very quick on the straights anyway.

"We just try to maximise everything we can in terms of lap time and [managing] tyre degradation."