Max Verstappen is looking to clinch his first pole position of the 2020 Formula One season but Lewis Hamilton will be keen to deny him, while fellow Mercedes racer Valtteri Bottas will also be eager to secure the best spot on the grid for Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

Hamilton was fastest in FP1 and FP2 while Verstappen set the pace in FP3, going nearly three tenths quicker than the Silver Arrows duo.

Heading into the weekend, the Brit – who won his seventh drivers’ championship two weeks ago – said when asked how he motivates himself with the title already decided: “It is in my DNA. It is how I’m wired. I love that challenge.

“Coming to another race where the pressure is different and the focus is on getting the best out of this weekend.

“How can we extract more, learn more, use them as test races, so we can apply what we learned this year into next year’s car.

“We have work to do, we have incremental improvements to work on. Every opportunity we get to be on track, we are still challenged and learning and developing.”

While Verstappen said after the first two practice sessions: “I always enjoy the night races as they have such a different feel and I think it is good to have it at the end of the year as it is a nice change.

“For the first race, it is a track we know very well but it is always tough on tyres so it will be important to find a good set-up to work around that.

“Although the track conditions were very tricky on Friday I was pleased with the balance we found and the car was working well.

“We felt we had good momentum for the weekend so it was obviously disappointing for everyone in the Team to finish sixth in the race as it was not where we hoped or expected to be.

“We had some issues and also seemed to eat up the rear tyres quicker than others. It is not only me but everyone in the Team who left Turkey disappointed but that is because we all want to win.

“We always look forward as you cannot change what happened at the last race.

“I do not expect that we will see these type of track conditions again though so the last races will probably be more straight forward.”

Express Sport will be on hand with live qualifying results for the Bahrain Grand Prix from 2pm (BST) so stay tuned!

Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying results LIVE

Q1 Results

Results will appear once the session takes place.

Q2 Results

Results will appear once the session takes place.

Q3 Results

Results will appear once the session takes place.