Verstappen Takes First 2026 Pole at a Relocated Bahrain GP

Max Verstappen took pole for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia with a 1:35.130, his first of 2026. He beat Lewis Hamilton by 0.298 seconds at Sepang, the first non-Mercedes-powered pole of the season, and will share the front row with the same rival who started from pole the last time Formula 1 raced here.

Isack Hadjar put a second Red Bull third, then drops to eighth on Sunday, October 4. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli starts third after Mercedes’ weakest Saturday of a year it still leads by 66 points.

A Bahrain Grand Prix Staged in Malaysia

The race still carries Gulf Air and Bahrain in the title. The cars are in Selangor. Formula 1 and the FIA confirmed on July 26 that Malaysia would host the round at Sepang from October 2 to 4, after the original Bahrain and Saudi Arabian dates were pulled from April because of conflict in the Middle East. Bahrain is still paying. The rest of the calendar was left alone.

Sepang last held a world championship race on October 1, 2017. Verstappen won it from third on his 20th birthday, passing Hamilton on lap 4 and finishing 12.770 seconds clear in 1:30:01.290. Hamilton had taken pole that day. Nine years later they are 1-2 again, in the other order, in cars built to a new engine formula.

THE ROAD BACK TO SEPANG

1. October 1, 2017: Verstappen wins the last Malaysian Grand Prix from third, with Hamilton second after starting on pole.
2. July 26, 2026: Formula 1 and the FIA confirm Sepang will stage the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix from October 2 to 4.
3. October 3, 2026: Verstappen takes pole in 1:35.130, Hamilton second, Hadjar third before a five-place engine drop.

The circuit is 5.543 km and Sunday’s race is 56 laps. Lights out is at 15:00 local time. Most of the 22-car field has never started a grand prix here, because the grid has turned over since 2017 and two new constructors, Audi and Cadillac, were not even in the championship then.

Why Verstappen’s Pole Took Until Round 16

He was fastest in Q1, Q2 and Q3, and he had already topped FP1 on Friday. That run of sessions is new for Red Bull in 2026. Verstappen sits sixth in the drivers’ championship on 163 points with no race wins. Antonelli has 302 points and eight victories. The gap from pole to the championship leader’s best lap was 0.501 seconds.

His first Q3 run, a 1:35.250, already sat three tenths clear. The last lap shaved another 0.120 seconds. Only Hamilton got within 0.298 seconds of either time. Red Bull called it the first pole for the DM01, the Ford-backed power unit in the RB22, and posted that he was picking up where he left off in Malaysia.

MAX IS ON POLE!!!!! pic.twitter.com/vsNXqPCFhm

— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) October 3, 2026

Verstappen’s previous pole was the 2025 Abu Dhabi title decider. Every pole until Sepang this year had a Mercedes engine in the back, either in a works car or a customer McLaren.

It is fantastic. We have been trying many Grands Prix to get pole, sometimes closer than others. To finally get it after where we started the season is incredible. I’m happy with today and for sure I am going to try and win tomorrow.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull, after qualifying

The official qualifying classification from Sepang puts the top eight inside 0.741 seconds, then a hole. Pierre Gasly’s Alpine was 2.080 seconds off pole in ninth. Gabriel Bortoleto’s Audi was 2.543 seconds away in tenth. Both men were slower in Q3 than they had been in Q2.

Q3 AT SEPANG

Bortoleto is the first Audi driver into Q3 at this circuit. Nico Hulkenberg, his teammate, was out in Q1 by 0.087 seconds.

The Front Row F1 Last Saw Here in 2017

Hamilton’s 1:35.428 is his first front-row start since Barcelona, the race he won. He was second in Q1, 0.118 seconds behind Verstappen, then only fifth in Q2 before the last Q3 run put the Ferrari SF-26 back beside the Red Bull. He praised the “perfect timing” of that lap and said a late change in the garage had put the car in a sweet spot, while warning that the tyres overheat from the first metres at Sepang.

Charles Leclerc starts fifth, 0.536 seconds off pole, so Ferrari has both cars in the first three rows after Hadjar’s penalty. McLaren is sixth and seventh, Lando Norris a thousandth of a second faster than Oscar Piastri. Norris still has two wins in 2026. Piastri has none. Neither looked like a pole threat after FP3, when Norris was 0.859 seconds off Antonelli and Piastri was more than a second away.

The pairing on the front row is the same two names as the 2017 podium, minus Daniel Ricciardo. Hamilton is 41 and in his second season at Ferrari. Verstappen is still in the car that won him four titles, now with a Ford-backed engine and a teammate who was on a podium in Baku on September 26 after returning from injury.

Hadjar Qualifies Third and Starts Eighth

Hadjar’s 1:35.558 was 0.428 seconds off his teammate and faster than both Mercedes. He will not start there. Red Bull fitted a seventh internal combustion engine on a car already over the season cap of four, so he takes a five-place drop and lines up eighth. Antonelli, Leclerc, Norris, Piastri and Russell each gain a spot.

He said before the session that he expected the drop and still thought Sepang was a circuit where race pace would let him climb. He finished third in Baku a week earlier. The same engine rules also move two other cars.

THE GRID DROPS AT SEPANG

• Isack Hadjar: Five places for a seventh ICE, from third in qualifying to eighth on the grid.
• Franco Colapinto: Fifteen places, five carried over from the Baku collision plus ten for a fifth ICE, after a Q2 that ended in a DNF.
• Arvid Lindblad: Thirty places for a fifth ICE, fifth turbocharger and fifth exhaust, which puts him at the back.

Lindblad spent his Q2 towing Racing Bulls teammate Liam Lawson down the back straight. Lawson still missed Q3 by 0.209 seconds, 11th with a 1:37.023. Colapinto had been 10th in Q1 in 1:37.179, then set no time in Q2 because the penalty already sent him down the order.

The Worst Mercedes Saturday of a Title Year

Antonelli was fastest in FP3 in 1:36.302, 0.278 seconds ahead of Verstappen, on a W17 that had new parts for this race. Qualifying did not follow. He had a Q2 lap deleted for track limits at turn 6, burned an extra set of softs to reach Q3, and had to take his only flying lap off-sequence while the others ran together. That lap, 1:35.631, was good for fourth and becomes third on the grid.

George Russell qualified eighth in 1:35.871, 0.741 seconds off pole. The previous low for the works team in 2026 was fourth and seventh in Budapest. Russell has three wins and 236 points. He took the latest of those wins in Baku, cutting the gap to Antonelli from 81 points after Madrid to 66. He starts Sunday behind both McLarens and Leclerc as well as his teammate.

THE CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER BAKU

• Antonelli: 302 points, eight wins, starts third on October 4.
• Russell: 236 points, three wins, starts seventh after qualifying eighth.
• Hamilton: 199 points, one win, starts second.
• Verstappen: 163 points, no wins, starts from pole.

Mercedes still has 538 constructors’ points. Ferrari has 378, McLaren 306, Red Bull 263. A single Saturday does not rewrite that table. It does put a Red Bull and a Ferrari on the front row of a race the works Mercedes arrived at as the car to beat.

Who Missed the Cut in Q1 and Q2

Fernando Alonso called 12th a “miracle” and it was only his second Q2 of 2026. Lance Stroll made Q2 for the first time this year, 0.008 seconds slower than Alonso in Q1 (1:37.729 against 1:37.721) before finishing 14th. Carlos Sainz split them in 13th for Williams. Alexander Albon, his teammate, locked up at turn 14 and went out 20th in 1:38.600.

Haas had both cars in Q1 for the first time since Monaco. Oliver Bearman was 18th in 1:37.980 after going deep at turn 1. Esteban Ocon was 19th in 1:38.233 and told the team he thought they had gone too early, because he was first to take the chequered flag on the last runs. Hulkenberg’s 1:37.970 left him 17th, 0.087 seconds from safety.

Cadillac locked out the back row. Valtteri Bottas was 21st in 1:38.611, 0.011 seconds behind Albon. Sergio Perez was 22nd in 1:38.933, 2.456 seconds off Verstappen, the man he used to partner at Red Bull. Cadillac still has zero points. Perez has zero. Bottas has zero. The new American team is the only constructor still on that number.

Sunday’s Grid After the Engine Drops

The Bahrain circuit’s own pole notice still read as if the race were at Sakhir. It is not. Verstappen starts first at Sepang, Hamilton second, Antonelli third. Hadjar, who earned the second row on merit, starts eighth and has to pass Russell, both McLarens and Leclerc if he wants it back.

PROVISIONAL STARTING TEN

Lindblad starts at the back. Colapinto’s 15-place drop from 15th puts him there with him. Soft tyres at Sepang were good for one flying lap on Saturday, and Hamilton already flagged overheating for the race. In 2017 Verstappen won from third. On October 4 he starts first, with Hamilton beside him again, at a Bahrain Grand Prix that needed Malaysia to exist at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do Formula 1 engine grid penalties work in 2026?

Each driver may use four internal combustion engines, four turbochargers and four exhausts across the season. The first time any of those caps is broken, the driver drops ten grid places. Each later extra part of the same type costs five places, and any combined penalty of more than 15 places sends the car to the back of the grid, which is why Lindblad starts last after a 30-place total and Hadjar only loses five for a seventh ICE.

What is the race distance at Sepang?

Sunday’s grand prix is 56 laps of the 5.543 km circuit, a scheduled race distance of 310.417 km, the same lap count Verstappen completed when he won here in 2017.

Who holds the Formula 1 fastest lap at Sepang?

Sebastian Vettel’s 1:34.080, set for Ferrari during the 2017 race, is still listed as the official fastest lap, 1.050 seconds quicker than Verstappen’s 2026 pole time in the new-generation cars.

When did Sepang first host Formula 1?

The Hermann Tilke-designed circuit opened in 1999 during Malaysia’s infrastructure push under then-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, and it held the Malaysian Grand Prix every year from that debut until 2017 before this one-off Bahrain round brought the championship back.