Max Verstappen takes first pole of season for Bahrain GP at Sepang, Malaysia
Max Verstappen claimed pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang, Malaysia on 3 October 2026, securing Red Bull’s first pole of the season. He out-qualified Lewis Hamilton, who put his Ferrari on the front row in second.
The pole was Verstappen’s first since last year’s Abu Dhabi GP and the 49th of his career, and it was his first pole in Malaysia; he has yet to win this year. The Bahrain GP is being held in Malaysia to replace the meeting cancelled earlier this year because of the war in the Middle East, and Sepang last hosted a Formula 1 meeting in 2017, a race won by Verstappen; the venue staged the Malaysian GP between 1999 and 2017. After his victory at the last round in Baku, George Russell had closed the gap to championship leader Kimi Antonelli to 66 points with eight meetings remaining; Lewis Hamilton sits 103 points behind in third and Lando Norris 116 points adrift in fourth.
In qualifying Verstappen finished first, Hamilton second and Isack Hadjar third, with Kimi Antonelli fourth, Charles Leclerc fifth and Lando Norris sixth; George Russell could manage only eighth in the session. Hadjar carries a five-place grid penalty for taking a new engine, meaning Antonelli will start from third on the grid and Russell seventh.
Russell set the opening Q3 time with a 1min 36.032sec lap before the Red Bulls went quicker; Verstappen produced a 1: 35.130 to top the session. Verstappen’s advantage of three-tenths over Hamilton was noted in the coverage, and Hamilton produced a strong lap to claim second, three-tenths adrift and ahead of Hadjar and Antonelli, while Russell was unable to improve.
Antonelli’s first Q2 time was deleted for exceeding track limits, forcing him to run again and use an extra set of soft tyres and leaving only one set of new rubber for Q3. He went out alone for that single decisive lap; that effort was, at the time, only good enough for third before the final classification left him fourth in qualifying.
Red Bull had been hoping to continue improving in the second half of the season, although Verstappen’s dissatisfaction with the energy-management aspect of the racing has remained. The team’s apparent progress and Verstappen’s qualifying pace will be watched closely given he has not yet converted pole positions into a win this year.
Hadjar’s five-place penalty alters the starting order: Antonelli will move up to start third and Russell to seventh, a shift that comes after Russell had trimmed Antonelli’s championship lead to 66 points following the Baku win with eight meetings left in the season.