Oscar Piastri took his second career pole position in a thrilling shootout under the lights in Bahrain as Lando Norris could only manage sixth in the other McLaren.
Mercedes' George Russell will start on the front row after a superb qualifying whilst Max Verstappen will start next to Norris in seventh with Lewis Hamilton struggling in ninth.
Hamilton's teammate Charles Leclerc made good use of Ferrari's new upgrades and will start in third place alongside Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Pierre Gasly took a brilliant fifth for Alpine with Carlos Sainz in eighth and Yuki Tsunoda in 10th in his second qualifying for Red Bull.
Driver reaction
"I felt confident all weekend," said Piastri to F1TV. "We got the lap time when it mattered, I can't thank the team enough for the car they've given me this weekend."
A disappointed Norris said to Sky Sports, "I am just not quick enough, we'll look into the data, see where we can improve and we'll try again tomorrow."
The Briton was 0.426 behind his teammate.
Eliminations and incidents
Esteban Ocon will start 14th after a crash at turn three on the first run in Q2 which caused a red flag.
Jack Doohan finished 11th just missing out on the top 10 shootout as Isack Hadjar and Fernando Alonso also failed to reach Q3.
Alexander Albon, who was out qualified by his teammate for only the third time in 50 races failed to get out of Q1 but will bizarrely start 15th after Nico Hulkenberg got a lap time deleted whilst Q3 was underway.
The deletion means the German will start 16th despite taking part in the second part of qualifying.
Liam Lawson was also eliminated in Q1 in 17th place along with Gabriel Bortoleto, Lance Stroll and Ollie Bearman bringing up the rear.
How qualifying unfolded:
Q1:
McLaren set a blistering pace with Norris and Piastri at the front of the field as both Red Bulls failed to set a lap time on the initial runs but both Verstappen and Tsunoda found the time they needed to get into Q2.
Bearman struggled for grip on both runs, having to settle for last on the grid with Stroll in 19th and Bortoleto in 18th ahead of him.
Lawson's DRS flap slammed shut on his final run costing him a place and adding to his woes after being demoted to the Racing Bulls team.
Albon initially found the time to make it out of the bottom five but a lockup at turn one eventually cost him the time and was forced to settle for 16th.
Q2:
Ocon's crash at turn 3 brought out a red flag with multiple drivers on a lap being forced to abort.
Aston Martin's struggles continued with Alonso only managing 14th behind Hülkenberg and Hadjar in 13th and 12th respectively.
Doohan missed out by just 0.017 seconds behind a relieved Tsunoda in 10th and Verstappen struggling in ninth.
Q3:
Verstappen's frustration continued on his first run 0.4 behind his teammate whilst Piastri took provisional pole by a tenth from Russell and Norris.
Both Mercedes impressed on the second runs, briefly locking out the front row before Leclerc split the silver arrows and Piastri snatched back the pole from Russell by 0.168.
Norris massively struggled on the second run, barely failing to improve as Gasly took 5th.
Verstappen managed to improve albeit only to 7th ahead of Sainz and Hamilton with Tsunoda in 10th.
