Max Verstappen claims pole position for Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia

Max Verstappen claimed pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia at Sepang, taking the top spot for Red Bull for the first time this season.

The Dutch driver beat Lewis Hamilton, who delivered a mighty lap into second, for his first pole since last year’s Abu Dhabi GP. The championship leader Kimi Antonelli was fourth but crucially for the title race his Mercedes teammate George Russell could mange only eighth.

Verstappen’s teammate Isack Hadjar was in third but has a five-place grid penalty for taking a new engine, meaning Antonelli will start from third on the grid and Russell seventh. Charles Leclerc was fifth for Ferrari and the defending world champion, Lando Norris, sixth for McLaren.

Verstappen’s advantage of three-tenths over Hamilton was indicative of the confidence and control he has been enjoying all weekend in Malaysia.

After his victory at the last round in Baku, Russell had closed the gap to Antonelli to 66 points with eight meetings remaining. Hamilton is 103 points back in third place and Norris 116 in arrears in fourth. While Antonelli will be disappointed in missing out on pole, the pressure is really on Russell to challenge his teammate, who has every opportunity to further extend his championship lead.

Red Bull had been hoping to continue to improve in the second half of the season, although Verstappen’s dissatisfaction with the energy-management aspect of the racing has remained. He will be buoyed that the team are still making advances and coming to terms with their car, which bodes well for next season. He has yet to win this year, which he will badly want to rectify and, on this form in qualifying, has every chance.

The Dutchman was all but untouchable on Saturday, and his 49th career pole is his first in Malaysia, a track where he was the last driver to win in 2017.

Antonelli looked unlikely to challenge Verstappen for pole, so quick was the Dutchman, but the Italian made a costly error. His first time in Q2 was deleted for exceeding track limits and had to go again, using up another set of soft tyres to leave him with only one set of new rubber to use in the decisive Q3 session, enough for only one attempt at a hot lap.

Russell went out early in Q3 and set the opening time with a 1min 36.032sec lap, and he was followed by the rapid Red Bulls. Verstappen blasted over a full three-tenths quicker than Hadjar, with Hamilton in third four-tenths back, leaving Russell in seventh.

Antonelli, needing to set a time, went out alone for his lone quick lap as the field returned to the pits. With the pressure on to keep it clean, Antonelli did what was required but it was only good enough for third.

Verstappen duly went even quicker with a 1: 35.130 but Hamilton had found a superb lap for Ferrari to claim second, three-tenths back but in front of Hadjar and Antonelli, while Russell could not improve.

The Bahrain GP is being held in Malaysia to replace the meeting which was cancelled earlier this year because of the war in the Middle East. Sepang last hosted an F1 meeting in 2017, a race won by Verstappen and it was the venue for the Malaysian GP between 1999 and 2017.