F1: Max Verstappen in pole position for the Bahrain GP played in Malaysia

Quadruple world champion Max Verstappen (Red Bull) will start on Sunday in pole position for the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix which is being held exceptionally in Malaysia and which he intends to “win”, after the best qualifying time on Saturday on the overheated Sepang circuit.

This is the first pole position of the year for the Dutchman who is ahead of seven-time British world champion Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari).

Verstappen's teammate, the young Frenchman Isack Hadjar, set the third fastest time in qualifying but will fall five places on the starting grid due to a penalty imposed on Red Bull for a change and addition of parts to the car's hybrid engine, beyond the authorized quota.

The Red Bulls, after a very difficult first half of the season, have been impressive since the Azerbaijan GP last Saturday with a double podium for Verstappen and Hadjar and shone during the three free practice sessions on Friday and Saturday in Malaysia.

“It’s fantastic. We have tried for a number of Grands Prix to take pole position, sometimes we were close to doing so. To have achieved this after such a start to the season is incredible,” said “Mad Max”, smiling and enthusiastic, even though he had threatened until this summer to leave F1, before being returned to Red Bul.

“I will try to win tomorrow,” reaffirmed the man who has been crowned world champion four times in a row (2021-2024), for which this would be the first victory in 2026.

On the Ferrari side, rather at half mast for a few races, the 41-year-old superstar, Hamilton, was delighted with his second time in front of “the biggest crowd ever seen here” at Sepang, near Kuaula Lumpur, which hosted F1 from 1999 to 2017 and where the humid heat tests the mechanics, the tires and the bodies.

Hamilton is one of nine drivers out of 22 to know this very technical 5.543 km circuit, wide, with straight lines and ultra-fast curves and a few corners where he crushes the brakes. The track is dirty and abrasive and risks getting wet from heavy, unpredictable monsoon showers.

For Hadjar, who told AFP on Thursday that he would now “smash all” his competitors at the end of 2026 and next year, praised a Red Bull car that was “very good since last week” in Baku, where he finished third after three missed races due to a broken wrist.

The 22-year-old Parisian said he was happy to finish third in qualifying, but found it "a shame" to have taken a penalty which will put him back five places on the grid. Overtaking is easier at Sepang because the track is very wide, all the drivers say.

The leader of the world championship, the 20-year-old Italian Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) and the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) complete the top 5 in qualifying, before the GP on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. (9:00 a.m. Paris/07:00 GMT).