Red Bull’s Verstappen grabs pole position for Bahrain GP in Malaysia

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has claimed his first ⁠pole position of the season at the Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton joining him on the front row.

Verstappen’s teammate ⁠Isack Hadjar was the third fastest but will start eighth due to a grid penalty on Saturday. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli is to start in third alongside Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Verstappen was the last driver to win a Grand Prix in Malaysia in 2017 in what was his second career victory before ‌the race was taken off the calendar after the government said it could not justify the costs.

Nine years and four championships later, the Dutchman showed he was still the man to beat in Sepang with a time of one minute and 35.13 seconds.

“It’s fantastic. We’ve been trying for many Grands Prix to get more, sometimes a bit closer to the others. But to finally get it from where we started ⁠the season, pretty incredible,” Verstappen said as he hopes for his first ⁠win of the season.

Hamilton, who also has one victory in Sepang, struggled with tyre degradation in the practice sessions, but the veteran Briton snatched second from Hadjar in the dying stages of the final qualifying session.

“It’s so ⁠hot here. I keep saying it, but that’s made it a massive challenge for the tyres, for the car, for the ⁠mechanics in the garage,” Hamilton said.

“We made so many ⁠changes through all these practice sessions because the cars are sliding, these tyres are overheating. It was really, really hard to find a good balance. We made one last change going into qualifying, and I think we ‌hit the sweet spot.”

Hadjar had exceeded his seasonal allowance for engines, which resulted in a five-place grid penalty.

“It’s a bit unfortunate we take the penalty on a track that ‌fast,” ‌Hadjar said.

“But you know, from P8, I’m confident we can go through the field and come back for a good result.”