The Dutch quadruple world champion Max Verstappen (Red Bull), impeccable in qualifying, will start from pole this Sunday at the Bahrain Grand Prix, the sixteenth of the Formula One World Championship, at the Sepang circuit, in Malaysia; where the seven-time crowned Englishman Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) completes a front row of true luxury.
Verstappen, 29, signed his forty-ninth pole position in F1 - the first of the season - by clearly dominating the main qualifying session, in whose third and decisive round (Q3) he covered, with the soft tyre, the 5,543 meters of the Malaysian track in one minute, 35 seconds and 130 thousandths, 298 less than Hamilton. The other Red Bull, that of Frenchman Isack Hadjar, set the third time, 428 thousandths behind his teammate, but, being penalized with five places on the grid - for changing elements in the power unit -, he will start eighth, ceding third place on the grid to the Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), leader of the World Championship.
Antonelli, who had set the fourth time, half a second behind the Dutch star, starts from a second row completed by the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari). In a race in which, on the hot, humid and abrasive Sepang track, tire degradation will be essential; and in which the Spaniards Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), and Carlos Sainz (Williams) will start twelfth and thirteenth, respectively.
The Bahrain Grand Prix, initially scheduled for April and postponed due to the attack by the United States and Israel on Iran - and its subsequent response - is held, retaining its name, in Malaysia, next to Singapore; that next Sunday will complete the 'triptych' that started last weekend in Azerbaijan. A test in which both the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Cadillac) and the Argentine Franco Colapinto (Alpine) will start from the back of the grid.
On an impressive circuit, with fifteen curves and two long straights, which combines high speed areas with others with strong braking. In which the Asturian double world champion celebrated three of his 32 victories in Formula One, with three different cars; and in which this Sunday a spectacular race is planned - scheduled for 56 laps, to complete 310 kilometers.
'Mad Max' and Sir Lewis. No less than eleven titles in the front row. The 'record man' of the premier category next to the driver who dethroned him five years ago. Just ahead of the youngest leader of all time; who, barring true misfortune, will become the third Italian - and the first since Alberto Ascari did it for the last time 73 years ago - to win the World Cup.
All this, together with the never-to-be-ruled-out possibility of rain in Sepang - where rainfall can be superlative - spices up a race in which the Englishman George Russell (Mercedes) - second in the World Championship, 66 points behind Antonelli's 302 - starts seventh, from the fourth row; which completes the sanctioned Hadjar. Behind that which will be occupied by the two McLarens of Englishman Lando Norris - the last world champion - and Australian Oscar Piastri, sixth on the grid.
The brilliant Asturian driver will start twelfth this time in Sepang. A track that has not been raced on since 2017, when Verstappen won; that that day he achieved his second victory in the premier category and that, after commanding all the qualifying time tables, this Sunday he will try to raise his own third historical record of victories in F1 to 72. Something that Hamilton will try to avoid, who leads that relationship with 106, fifteen more than the other seven-time world champion, German Michael Schumacher; already retired.
