Max Verstappen pole at Sepang on Saturday gave Red Bull its first pole position of the 2026 season and the first for a car without a Mercedes engine this year. Verstappen topped all three qualifying sessions for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia and beat Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari by 0.298 seconds, according to The Race.
His lap of 1 minute, 35.130 seconds was the 49th pole of his career. Verstappen and Hamilton will share the front row for the first time since the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen pole: the top of the grid
Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar qualified third, but he will drop five places on the grid for exceeding his allocation of engine components. Mercedes had its weakest qualifying of the year even after bringing a major upgrade package. Kimi Antonelli qualified fourth and Charles Leclerc fifth.
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 1:35.130
- Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), +0.298 seconds
- Isack Hadjar (Red Bull), subject to a five-place grid penalty
- Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
The rest of the top 10 in qualifying was Norris sixth, Piastri seventh, Russell eighth, Pierre Gasly ninth for Alpine and Gabriel Bortoleto 10th for Audi. Hadjar’s five-place penalty will move Russell up to seventh on the starting grid. That makes the order up front clear, but the midfield could look very different once the race starts.
Hamilton said his lap came with “perfect timing,” and it gave him his best starting position since Barcelona, per The Race. Fernando Alonso’s 12th place was a bright spot for Aston Martin, and he called reaching Q2 a “miracle.” Haas had both cars knocked out in Q1 for the first time since Monaco.
Why Red Bull found speed at Sepang
Red Bull arrived in Malaysia on a high after a competitive weekend in Baku, where Verstappen made a late charge at race winner Russell. Sepang’s abrasive surface and heat appear to have played to Red Bull’s strengths. Russell said of the track’s effect on Mercedes, “For whatever reason, it seems to be affecting us far more than others,” according to Sky Sports.
Verstappen said the result was a long time coming, and the Max Verstappen pole ends a long wait for the team. “It’s fantastic. We have been trying many Grands Prix to get pole…to finally get it, from where we started the season, pretty incredible,” he said.
The heat was a factor all weekend, as our look at the Bahrain GP in Malaysia showed. Antonelli also set the pace in practice, as covered in our Antonelli Sepang practice report.
Can the Max Verstappen pole turn into a win?
A Max Verstappen pole is only part of the picture. Sepang’s conditions may not be representative of the circuits still to come, and Mercedes could recover quickly on tracks that are kinder to its car. Russell beat Verstappen to the win in Azerbaijan, as we noted in our Azerbaijan Grand Prix Saturday coverage.
Antonelli still leads the drivers’ championship with 302 points, 66 ahead of Russell, who is second on 236. Hamilton is third on 199. Qatar and Abu Dhabi, the season finale, remain on the calendar after this race.
A Max Verstappen pole does not guarantee a win, but starting first gives Red Bull a clean run into the first corner and control of the early strategy. With Hamilton alongside and the Mercedes cars further back, Verstappen has a rare chance to lead from the front this season.
What comes next after the Max Verstappen pole
The race starts Sunday at 8 a.m. in the United Kingdom, which is 3 a.m. ET, with coverage on Sky Sports F1 in the UK. The race will show whether the Max Verstappen pole translates into race pace over a full distance in the heat. Hadjar’s penalty will push him back, which leaves Verstappen to defend the front row against Hamilton, who is targeting a second win this season.
