Max Verstappen swept to pole position for Formula 1’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, his and Red Bull’s first of the season.
Formula 1 has returned to Malaysia’s Sepang Circuit as a one-off, after a nine-year absence, with the venue standing in as the host for Bahrain.
And as at the conclusion of Sepang’s last race, it was Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton at the front of the field.
Red Bull’s RB22 has suited Sepang’s medium- to high-speed sweeps and highly abrasive track surface, which is facilitating massive tire degradation, and Verstappen set a time of 1:35.130s to finish 0.298s clear of Ferrari driver Hamilton.
It marked the first pole position in history for Red Bull Powertrains, and the first for a Ford-affiliated engine since 1999.
It was also the first time this season a non-Mercedes power unit has finished fastest in qualifying.
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Lewis Hamilton (left) qualified second to Max Verstappen (center), while Isack Hadjar had the third-fastest run but was penalized and will start in eighth.
“We have been trying many grands prix to get pole, sometimes closer than others,” Verstappen said. “To finally get it after where we started the season is incredible.”
Neither Verstappen nor Red Bull have won a race this year, but the four-time World Champion has finished runner-up at the last two grands prix.
Isack Hadjar reinforced Red Bull’s pace by qualifying in third position though will drop to eighth on the grid due to an engine penalty.
Mercedes had a difficult afternoon as Kimi Antonelli had a lap time deleted in Q2, impacting his run plan, while both he and George Russell struggled to extract performance from this year’s best all-round package.
Antonelli made it through to Q3 but having to use an extra set of tires left him with just one push lap, and he classified fourth, though will start third due to Hadjar’s penalty.
Russell was the slowest of the front-runners in eighth position, which will become seventh, but he was seven-tenths off the pace.
Antonelli leads Russell in the championship by 66 points.
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Kimi Antonelli qualified fourth but will start in third.
The Mercedes drivers were split by Charles Leclerc, who couldn’t match Hamilton’s lap, and the McLaren pair, who were off the pace but separated by just 0.005s in Lando Norris’ favor.
Pierre Gasly continued his strong form by qualifying ninth, while Gabriel Bortoleto excelled to slot into the top 10.
Aston Martin enjoyed its strongest Saturday of the campaign as Sepang’s layout played to the strengths of its package.
Fernando Alonso qualified in 12th position, with Lance Stroll 14th, marking the first time all season that the Canadian has escaped the first part of qualifying.
U.K.-based Phillip Horton started covering Grands Prix while still at university and swiftly deemed that writing about Formula 1 and the behind-the-scenes machinations was much more engaging than reading centuries-old novels. Degree gained, he went on to cover the sport full-time from 2014 and is as intrigued and excited by the destinations Formula 1 visits during its lengthy annual world tour as the racing itself. Phillip joined Autoweek in 2021 and while he has just about learned to spell in American English he has yet to find anywhere in America that makes a proper cup of tea.