Verstappen takes first 2026 pole ahead of Hamilton

Max Verstappen took his and Red Bull's first pole position of 2026 with an imperious performance in qualifying at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, ahead of Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton.

Verstappen, whose last pole and victory was at the season finale in Abu Dhabi in 2026, was 0.298 seconds quicker than Hamilton after topping all three sessions of qualifying.

Red Bull's Isack Hadjar was third fastest but has a five-place grid penalty, which will promote runaway championship leader Kimi Antonelli to third place.

The Italian's closest rival, team-mate George Russell, could manage only eighth fastest.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was fifth fastest, ahead of the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Fernando Alonso, fresh from confirming he will stay in F1 for at least another year in 2027, gave Aston Martin their best qualifying position of the year with 12th place, behind Alpine's Pierre Gasly, Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto and Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson.

The second Aston Martin of Lance Stroll was 14th, split from Alonso by Williams' Carlos Sainz.

Where have Red Bull (and Ferrari) come from?

Red Bull introduced a aerodynamic upgrade at the last race in Azerbaijan, and it has proved to be a major step forward at the demanding Sepang track, hosting this race after it was postponed earlier in the year because of the war in the Middle East.

Verstappen has had a difficult year, struggling for pace and balance for much of it, but he is on a strong run of results after steady improvements to the car.

"Fantastic," he said. "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."

Hamilton's position on the front row revives memories of their bitter title battle in 2021, when the seven-time champion was at Mercedes, and whets appetites for the grand prix on Sunday.

Hamilton said: "It's so hot here. That's made it a massive challenge for the cars, the tyres, the mechanics in the garage.

"Because the tyres are sliding, it's so hard to find a good balance and we made one change and we finally hit the sweet spot."

Merc's major upgrade takes them backwards

Mercedes have brought their first major upgrade since the Canadian Grand Prix in June, but it has not proved the step forward hoped.

Unusally, Antonelli went into qualifying with only four new sets of soft tyres rather than the usual five and compromised his programme by having his first lap in second session deleted for going beyond track limits.

That meant he had to use another set of tyres in the session, which left him only one for the final shootout.

He went out in the middle of the session, after the others did their first runs, and ended up with a time 0.501secs from pole, much further away than Mercedes would have hoped.

Antonelli said: "It's a shame because with only one set, big pressure. I did what I could but with another set we could have fought for front row. Not P1, because Max was too quick today."

But he fared better than Russell, who was lacking pace compared to his team-mate all day, and ended up 0.240secs off Antonelli.

The Briton said: "It's the most demanding circuit on the tyres, so we don't know exactly why we didn't have the pace. From Friday it was clear we weren't on the pace of the Red Bulls and we haven't really progressed. The others have caught up and overtaken [us]."

It was also a difficult day for McLaren, who were tipped by Russell as the potential frontrunners going into the weekend because of their car's strong recent performances on tracks that share characteristics with this one.

But they lacked pace all weekend and Norris could manage only a best lap of 0.627secs off the pace.

For Aston Martin, though, this was confirmation that changes they have made to their car in recent races have borne fruit.

They struggled in Italy and Azerbaijan because their Honda engine remains the worst in the field, despite two recent upgrades.

But on a track where power sensitivity is lower, the improvements to the chassis made in terms of aerodynamics and weight since the summer added up.

A lap by Alonso that was 1.524secs off the pace is by far their strongest performance of the year, and a suggestion that the veteran's faith they could step forward significantly in 2027 has some foundation.

"It was definitely one the best qualifying of the year," Alonso said. "1.5secs to top of Q2, so smallest margin. It seems this circuit is a little better for our package and let's see tomorrow if we can take advantage of this."