Max Verstappen grabbed pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on F1’s return to the Sepang International Circuit.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
In the first qualifying session on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur since 2017, Lewis Hamilton joined the Red Bull driver in locking out the front row of the grid.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Isack Hadjar rounded out the top three, ahead of Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc. However, the Frenchman will serve a five-place grid penalty for an engine change and start from eighth.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
As a result, Lando Norris will start fifth, with Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren alongside. George Russell moves from eighth to seventh, after a disappointing effort for the British driver.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
It is the first non-Mercedes power unit pole of the campaign, with Antonelli, Russell, Norris and Pierre Gasly the only drivers to top a grid-setting session until now.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
As a result, Red Bull-Ford claimed its first pole as a partnership. It is also the first for the American marque since 1999, when it powered Stewart and Rubens Barrichello to pole in the French Grand Prix in Magny-Cours.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Aston Martin defied expectations with both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll getting out of Q1, marking the first time all season that both AMR26s made it into Q2.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
They ultimately qualified P12 and P14, respectively, sandwiching the Williams of Carlos Sainz.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Check out the full results from qualifying for the 2026 F1 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia below!\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen grabbed pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on F1’s return to the Sepang…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3518,3521,3519,3522,3520,3517,3515,3513,3516,3514,111,139,69,3512,213],"class_list":["post-619420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motorsport","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}