Horner: The race will be a little bit of a voyage of discovery

Formula 1 in 2022 is off to a good start, as qualifying in Bahrain on Saturday gave as a resurgent Ferrari, a strong Red Bull, and a Mercedes struggling, but not for long for sure.

After his formidable form during pre-season and the opening practice sessions in Bahrain, Max Verstappen lost out on the first pole in the new F1 era, something his boss Christian Horner traced back to a small error on the Dutchman's final lap in Q3.

However, Horner is happy with his team's qualifying performance, and acknowledged Leclerc's performance, speaking to Sky Sports F1: "Charles did a great lap at the end there.

"Max had a little bit of a wobble in the last corner, I think, and the margins are so fine," he revealed. "But, to start on the front row after such a big regulation change, we're more than happy with that."

Horner is excited about how the field got closer following the regulation changes, with the gap from pole to fourth - where Sergio Perez qualified - was a little over three tenths. Verstappen was only 0.006s faster than Carlos Sainz in third.

"It's fantastic. I think, for such a clean sheet of regulations, [the gap between] Checo [Perez] and the pole is like three tenths – it's nothing!" he said.

Verstappen said after qualifying that the have a good car for the race, and Horner is looking forward to see how close the new cars can race on Sunday, as one would imagine that Verstappen will be racing Leclerc quite closely.

"It's such a big change and [there are] such radical differences between the cars, so I think the race is going to be fascinating tomorrow, to see if these cars can follow closer and we can race closer."

"It's a little bit of a voyage of discovery, because we don't really know how strong their long-run pace is," he added.

"We've got more to find out about ourselves. We had a decent run yesterday, but it's only going to be when the lights go out tomorrow that we really see what kind of shape we're in, and what the [tyre] degradation is like."

The 48-year-old Briton credited Perez for qualifying on the second row, which should put him in a good position to support his teammate who will be out to defend his Title, the Mexican 0.240s off the pace of the Dutchman, something the team should be satisfied with.

"For us, after such an intense year last year, to turn up and qualify on the front row with this new car, and [have] Checo on the second row, we're more than happy with that," Horner maintained.