F1 – RED Bull Racing’s four-time Formula One world champion Max Verstappen stormed to pole position yesterday for today’s historic F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia 2026.
Verstappen endured extremely hot and humid conditions at Sepang International Circuit (SIC) to best F1’s star-studded, 22-driver field and secure the leading grid position for the first time this season.
The Dutchman registered a blistering fastest lap time of one minute 35.130 seconds in yesterday’s Q3 session of qualifying. It was the quickest mark of the entire weekend so far.
Verstappen beat out Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton by 0.298 seconds to secure the 49th pole of his career for today’s 56-lap race, which is scheduled to flag off at 3pm Malaysia time and 10am Bahrain time.
“It’s fantastic!” said Verstappen after qualifying. “We have been trying many grands prix to get pole. Sometimes a bit closer than others, but to finally get it, from where we started the season, pretty incredible.
“I’m happy with today and I’m going to try and win tomorrow. When you start first, that’s the target.”
Verstappen will be looking to repeat his stunning victory at SIC the last time an F1 grand prix was held there in 2017. He was joined on the podium then by Hamilton, competing that year with Mercedes, and his Red Bull Racing teammate at the time Daniel Ricciardo.
“It’s tough always around here – it’s very hot, for ourselves, but also for the cars, for the brakes, for the tyres – so, yeah, the race is definitely going to be a tough one,” Verstappen said of what he expects in today’s grand prix. “You have to manage a lot and it’s impossible to know at the moment, of course, who can do that the best.
“But at the same time, also, there is a start, where a lot of things can happen. So, we just need to be aware, ready, and then we’ll see how competitive we are in the race.
“But so far this weekend, yes, I’ve felt good, I felt confident, and I hope we can show that again tomorrow.”
Hamilton, who had triumphed at Sepang in 2014, commented after yesterday’s action: The conditions have been incredibly demanding all weekend, not just for the drivers but also for the mechanics and engineers, and they’ve done a fantastic job.
“We worked hard session after session to understand the car and find the right balance in these temperatures, and the adjustments we made ahead of qualifying definitely helped us take a step forward.
“We managed to put it all together when it mattered most. Tomorrow will be a very different challenge, with tyre management likely to play a big part, but it’s great to be starting on the front row.
“Now we just need to focus on executing a clean race, maximising every opportunity, and seeing what we can achieve.”
Verstappen’s current teammate Isack Hadjar also did well yesterday, continuing his impressive F1 debut weekend in Malaysia by qualifying third. But he will be demoted to eighth in the starting order following a five-place grid penalty after his car was fitted with new power unit components.
Mercedes’s world championship leader Kimi Antonelli has therefore been promoted to row two and will start from third, where he will line up alongside Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
“We were strong in FP3, so it was a shame that we dropped back in terms of competitiveness come qualifying,” said Antonelli.
“It is a unique circuit here with a very aggressive tarmac and in incredibly hot conditions – that makes it difficult to deliver the same performance consistently.
“I think we could have fought for the front-row, but I don’t think we could have challenged Max for pole. He has looked like the quickest car all weekend and so it proved today.
“P3 is not a bad place to be starting from, all things considered.”
McLaren’s defending F1 world champion Lando Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri make up row three, Mercedes’s George Russell and Hadjar are on row four, while on row five at lights out are Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto.
Dropping out of the fight for pole in Q2 yesterday were Racing Bulls’s Liam Lawson, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, Williams’s Carlos Sainz, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, and Racing Bulls’s Arvid Lindblad.
Eliminated in Q1 were Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg, Haas drivers Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon, Williams’s Alexander Albon, and Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez.
Today’s F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia will be the 22nd running of the kingdom’s biggest sporting spectacle, and it will be back as a daytime race for this year in Sepang.
Earlier yesterday in the third and final F1 practice session of the weekend, Antonelli put Mercedes atop the timesheet with a fastest lap of 1:36.302, beating Verstappen by 0.278 seconds. Hadjar was classified third 0.558s adrift.
Prior to today’s grand prix and as part of the pre-event festivities, a drivers’ parade will take place at 1pm. The traditional Gulf Air flypast, held every year accompanying the kingdom’s spectacle since its inception, will then take place at 2.46pm.
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