Sepang (Malaysia) (AFP) – Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), eleven world crowns between them, will start on the front row on Sunday of the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix exceptionally relocated to Malaysia, with the first pole position of the season and a chance of victory for the Dutchman.

Published on: 03/10/2026 - 1:48 p.m.

The two men, four titles for Verstappen, seven for British superstar Hamilton in almost 20 years, had not started with their cars side by side since the Hungarian GP in 2023 and “Mad Max” had not won a pole since Abu Dhabi in December, where he narrowly missed a fifth world crown.

Verstappen, who turned 29 on September 30 and who has just been reappointed to Red Bull, completed his best lap on the Sepang circuit, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, in 1 min 35 sec 130 thousandths, leaving Hamilton 298 thousandths behind.

The Dutchman's teammate, Frenchman Isack Hadjar, set the third fastest time in qualifying but will fall five places on the starting grid due to a penalty imposed on Red Bull for changing parts on the hybrid engine, beyond the authorized quota.

“Objective” podium for Hadjar

In front of three French media including AFP, the 22-year-old Parisian said he was both "happy with the performance of the car" but "disappointed" with this third time, let alone his eighth place.

His “goal” is to get back on the podium.

The Red Bulls, after a very difficult first half of the season, have been impressive since the Azerbaijan GP last Saturday with a double podium for Verstappen and Hadjar, and shone during the three test sessions on Friday and Saturday in Malaysia.

"It's fantastic. We have tried for a number of Grands Prix to get pole position (...) To have achieved it after such a start to the season is incredible," said Verstappen, enthusiastic, after he had threatened until this summer to leave F1.

“I will try to win tomorrow,” reaffirmed the man who has been crowned world champion four times in a row (2021-2024) and for whom this would be his first victory in 2026.

At Ferrari, a tone below for a few races, Hamilton, 41, was delighted with his second time in front of "the biggest crowd ever seen here" at Sepang, which hosted F1 from 1999 to 2017 and where the humid heat tests the mechanics, tires and bodies.

Hamilton is one of nine drivers out of 22 to have raced on this 5.543 km circuit, very technical, wide, with straight lines and ultra-fast curves and a few chicanes where he crushes the brakes.

The track is dirty and abrasive and is likely to get wet from unpredictable monsoon showers.

Hadjar, a 22-year-old Parisian who is gaining mastery behind the wheel and in front of the media, missed three GPs this summer due to a broken wrist.

The injury is "no longer relevant" and he said he was counting on his "youth" to survive the heat of South-East Asia (56 laps and 2 hours of racing on Sunday from 07:00 GMT), adding with a smile that he was banking on maximum "degradation" of the soft or medium tires for everyone with "160 pit stops".

Bad surprise for Mercedes

The bad surprise came from the almost untouchable leaders of the Championship: the Mercedes of Italian prodigy Kimi Antonelli and Briton George Russell will start third and seventh respectively.

The German team led by one of the barons of F1, Austrian businessman Toto Wolff, well ahead of Ferrari in the constructors' standings, has nevertheless made improvements to its single-seaters, chassis and in-house engines, monsters of power and technology.

The other Ferrari of Monegasque Charles Leclerc can play for the podium with its fourth place on the grid, ahead of the two McLarens of the 2025 world champion, the Briton Lando Norris, and the Australian Oscar Piastri.

© 2026 AFP

The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.