Bahrain GP in Malaysia: Verstappen dominates as Hamilton makes front row
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen
A dominant Max Verstappen put his Red Bull on pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
The most recent victor at Sepang, Verstappen made a daunting statement to anyone who wishes to dethrone him on Sunday, claiming his first pole position of the season. Lewis Hamilton, also a past winner here, secured his place on the front row.
Max Verstappen on fine form at Sepang
The scorching track temperatures, and abrasive circuit, meant that the soft tyres were being pushed to the absolute limit at Sepang. It was time to push those boundaries even further as qualifying got underway.
Q1 would eliminate the slowest six drivers.
Arvid Lindblad carried a back-of-the-grid engine penalty into qualifying. Isack Hadjar five places for a new internal combustion engine.
Franco Colapinto would serve his five-place grid drop for causing his collision with Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris in Baku.
Haas had the track to itself in the opening minutes. Esteban Ocon ignited the timing screen with a 1:38.879.
The action soon ramped up as a pit-lane queue formed, and dispersed out onto the circuit.
Verstappen, the most recent winner at Sepang, sent an early warning shot with a 1:36.477, as Hamilton slotted in a tenth behind, Leclerc P3. Crucially, both Ferraris were on the medium tyres, rather than softs.
After a brief lull in the action, the pack flooded back out for those all-important final runs.
Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas, Lance Stroll, Oliver Bearman, Alex Albon and Ocon needed a better time to make Q2.
Verstappen topped Q1. Perez, Bottas, Albon, Ocon, Bearman and Nico Hulkenberg were out.
Audi had swapped mediums for softs on the final push lap, Gabriel Bortoleto comfortably making the cut as Hulkenberg missed out.
As the light went green, mechanics and drivers spent the first few minutes poised, before the pit-lane suddenly burst into life.
Verstappen saw the black and white flag for driving unnecessarily slowly on his warm-up lap. Not that the tyres needed warming up. The whole point of coasting around was to avoid burning away the best of the grip before the flyer.
Verstappen hooked up a 1:35.696, a marked step forward from Q1. Leclerc, now on softs, went second, 0.274s off the pace. P3 for Hamilton, also now on softs.
Antonelli lost his lap for track limits at Turn 6. He was forced to bolt on another set of new softs and head back out, as the rest of the pack waited in the pits, preparing for one final push.
As Alonso was shown the black and white flag for the same reason as Verstappen earlier, Antonelli shot up to second. A cool head in boiling hot conditions from the championship leader.
Lindblad, knowing he would drop to the back, went out to give teammate Liam Lawson a tow, which the New Zealander used to enter the top 10.
He was denied by Bortoleto.
That meant Lawson, Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz, Stroll, Colapinto and Lindblad were out at the end of Q2.
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George Russell, conspicuous by his absence at the sharp end in qualifying so far, was first to set off on a Q3 push.
A 1:36.032 was an improvement, but would surely not be enough.
Provisional pole for Verstappen, his 1:35.250 putting him three tenths ahead of Hadjar in a Red Bull one-two at this stage in Q3.
As everyone else returned to the pits, Antonelli set off on his final remaining set of new softs. P3, as the championship leader’s fellow challengers returned to the track.
Verstappen found another 0.12s with a purple final sector. Pole position. Hamilton muscled his way onto the second row.
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Full qualifying results – Bahrain GP in Malaysia 2026 – Qualifying F1 results (Sepang)
