pole position

Fly-half Holly Aitchison guided England to victory that day and was in pole position to retain the 10 shirt this campaign, but Mitchell has instead split the workload between his three playmakers.

And asked why he had been so good in the sprint race in China last month, where he won from pole position, and had struggled elsewhere, he said: "I don't have an answer."

Verstappen had said after taking an unexpected and superb pole position on Saturday that he expected it to be difficult to hold Piastri back.

Verstappen moved to within one point of Norris in the standings with a brilliant win at the Japanese Grand Prix from pole position two weeks ago.

Verstappen won the Japanese Grand Prix a week before Bahrain but that victory was founded on a pole position lap that many F1 observers regarded as one of the greatest of all time.