The wait has been long for Max Verstappen but when the Dutchman finally claimed his first pole position of the year he did it in no little style. Taking the top spot for Red Bull at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Verstappen was all but untouchable.

However, what was of greatest import for the Formula One world championship was the gulf between the title leader, Kimi Antonelli, and his Mercedes teammate, George Russell. The latter, somewhat floundering in Sepang, is now in danger of losing further points he can ill afford in pursuit of the Italian.

Verstappen delivered a commanding performance in taking Red Bull’s first pole of the season, beating the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton, who also delivered a mighty lap, into second by three-tenths of a second. Antonelli was fourth but crucially his title rival Russell could mange only eighth.

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

Verstappen, who has been wrestling with a recalcitrant Red Bull all season and is out of the title fight, has yet to take a win and was understandably pleased with pole. Not least in that his team have done so well to develop the car – and that he could take advantage of it with the control and confidence he has demonstratedso far in Malaysia.

“It is fantastic,” Verstappen said. “To finally get it from where we started this season, pretty incredible. I am happy with today and I am going to try to win tomorrow. When you start first, that is the target.”

Few would bet against him, although a jubilant Hamilton, taking his best qualifying result since the Hungarian GP, will expectto mix it with the Dutchman at the off, setting up a mouthwatering opening to the race. However, it is in their wake where the title is at stake.

After his victory at the last round in Baku, Russell had closed the gap to Antonelli to 66 points with eight rounds remaining and was hopeful of increasing the pressure. Yet he could not hook it up in Malaysia, while Mercedes were also left a little perplexed as to why the swathe of upgrades they brought to the race did not deliver.

Lewis Hamilton will start second on the grid for Sunday’s grand prix at Sepang. Photograph: Robbie Hoad/Every Second Media/Shutterstock

Nonetheless it was Antonelli who still had a marked advantage over his teammate, despite an unforced error going too wide in Q2 that proved costly. The pressure then is now on Russell to try to come back at his teammate who has every opportunity to further extend his lead.

Antonelli conceded that pole might have been beyond him but also noted that the high tyre degradation in Malaysia could yet play a part in what is likely to be a two or even three-stop race.

skip past newsletter promotion

Sign up to The Recap

The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s action

“It’s a shame for the mistake, but with a clean qualifying without the track limit, maybe P2, P3 on the road would have been possible,” said Antonelli. “Max did an incredible job and also Ferrari. We have to be happy because it could have been much worse. It’s going to be interesting but I think Max has the edge on pace. Tomorrow, the tyre deg is going to be huge.”

Red Bull had been hoping to continue to bring their car on in the second half of the season and, although Verstappen’s dissatisfaction with energy-management has remained throughout, he will be buoyed by the advances the team are making – and perhaps even more importantly that they are coming to terms with their car, which bodes well for next season. On this form in qualifying, Verstappen has every chance to claim his first win of 2026 on a track where he was the last driver to take victory in 2017.

Antonelli’s crucial error occurred when he had his first time in Q2 deleted for exceeding track limits. He had to go again, using up another set of the soft tyres he could not afford and leaving him with only one set of the new rubber to use in Q3. He was therefore able to make only one attempt at a hot lap and then with care to avoid another deleted time. It was perhaps moot, so good was Verstappen, who improved on both his decisive laps, finishing with an inch-perfect 1min 35.130sec run to put him three-tenths in front of Hamilton.

The race, branded as the Bahrain GP, is being held in Malaysia to replace the meeting that was cancelled earlier this year because of the war in the Middle East. Sepang was the venue for the Malaysian GP between 1999 and 2017.