Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claimed his first pole position of the season at the Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on Saturday, proving he remains the master of Sepang’s challenging circuit nine years after his last victory there.
Verstappen clocked 1 minute 35.130 seconds to edge out Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who snatched second place in the dying moments of qualifying despite struggling with tyre degradation in the brutal Malaysian heat.
Verstappen’s teammate Isack Hadjar was third fastest but will start eighth due to a five-place grid penalty, with championship leader Kimi Antonelli moved up to third for Mercedes alongside Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Verstappen was the last driver to win a Grand Prix in Malaysia in 2017, in what was his second career victory, before the race was taken off the calendar after the government said it could not justify the costs.
Nine years and four championships later, the Dutchman became the first driver this season to put a car without a Mercedes engine on pole.
“It’s fantastic, we’ve been trying for many Grands Prix to get more, sometimes a bit closer to the others,” said Verstappen as he eyes his first win of the season.
“But to finally get it from where we started the season, pretty incredible.”
Hamilton, who also has one victory in Sepang, struggled with tyre degradation in practice sessions but the veteran Briton said they had now found the right setup.
“It’s so hot here, I keep saying it. But that’s made it a massive challenge for the tyres, for the car, for the mechanics in the garage,” Hamilton said.
“We made so many changes through all these practice sessions because the cars are sliding, these tyres are overheating. It was really, really hard to find a good balance.
“We made one last change going into qualifying and I think we hit the sweet spot.”
Hadjar sounded frustrated on the team radio despite finishing third fastest and later said he expected to go second quickest to limit the grid penalty as much as possible.
“It’s a bit unfortunate we take the penalty on a track that fast,” Hadjar said. “But you know, from P8, I’m confident we can go through the field and come back for a good result.”
