Verstappen takes first 2026 pole at Sepang as Hamilton joins front row
Kimi Antonelli led final practice at Sepang before Max Verstappen claimed his first pole of 2026 — and Red Bull-Ford’s first as a partnership — with Lewis Hamilton alongside on the front row and Isack Hadjar set to drop five places despite qualifying third.
Saturday at Sepang opened with Mercedes pace and closed with a Red Bull pole. Kimi Antonelli topped FP3 in 1:36.302 from Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar. Four hours later Verstappen sealed a 1:35.130 in Q3 — his first pole of 2026, his first since Abu Dhabi 2025, and the first non-Mercedes-powered pole of the season — with Lewis Hamilton 0.298 seconds adrift in second. Hadjar matched Friday’s form by qualifying third on time, then faces a five-place grid drop for a seventh ICE.
Important note on sources: Formula1.com’s official qualifying results page for race 1308 still showed “No results available” at the time of writing. The Q1–Q3 times and order below are cross-checked from Crash.net, The Race, RacingNews365, PlanetF1 and F1 Oversteer, which all agree. FP3 times are from the official Formula1.com Practice 3 classification.
FP3 — Antonelli leads Verstappen and Hadjar
Final practice started at 12:30 local in familiar hot, humid Sepang conditions. Sergio Pérez was first out — one of ten current drivers who raced here in 2017. Early running put Charles Leclerc on hards at 1:37.772 before Lando Norris, on mediums, went roughly six tenths faster; Oscar Piastri briefly sat second.
A red flag before halfway for debris from Oliver Bearman’s Haas interrupted the session while the Mercedes pair, Verstappen and Hamilton had yet to appear. After the restart Red Bull and McLaren worked mediums; most of the field, including Antonelli, switched to softs. Antonelli posted 1:36.924. Verstappen went purple in sector one then hit traffic and slipped to fourth; Hamilton waved a hand after getting stuck behind Arvid Lindblad.
Late soft runs decided the hour. Antonelli improved to 1:36.302 for P1; Verstappen took P2 at +0.278 (1:36.580); Hadjar claimed P3 at +0.558 (1:36.860). George Russell was fourth, Leclerc and Hamilton fifth and sixth, Norris and Piastri seventh and eighth. A brief second red flag for small debris from Bearman closed the drama. Qualifying followed at 16:00 local.
Qualifying — Verstappen’s first pole of 2026
Because Formula1.com had not yet published the official qualifying table, the classification here follows the Q3 order and times agreed by Crash.net, The Race, RacingNews365, PlanetF1 and F1 Oversteer.
Verstappen topped Q1 (1:36.477), Q2 (1:35.696) and Q3 (1:35.130). RacingNews365 noted it as Red Bull-Ford’s first pole as a partnership and Ford’s first Formula 1 pole since Rubens Barrichello’s Stewart win at Magny-Cours in 1999. Hamilton’s 1:35.428 put him on the front row for the first time since the Barcelona Grand Prix he won; The Race reported he praised the “perfect timing” of his run.
F1 Oversteer tracked the Q3 shootout: Hadjar set the early benchmark at 1:35.558; Verstappen answered with 1:35.250 then a final 1:35.130; Hamilton jumped Hadjar late with the best middle sector. Antonelli qualified fourth (1:35.631) after a Q2 track-limits penalty that cost him a set of tyres and left him running off-sync on an earlier final lap (The Race). Leclerc was fifth, Norris sixth, Piastri seventh — split by five thousandths — and Russell eighth in what The Race called Mercedes’ weakest qualifying of 2026, worse than Budapest’s 4th/7th despite the team’s upgrades.
“Perfect timing.”
— Lewis Hamilton on his Q3 run (via The Race)
Grid penalties and provisional start
Formula1.com confirmed the power-unit penalties on Friday, and the stewards set Hadjar’s five-place drop in FIA document 17. He takes that drop for a seventh ICE after already exceeding the allocation on all elements. Lindblad goes to the back of the grid with a cumulative 30-place penalty (fifth ICE, fifth turbo, fifth exhaust). Colapinto adds ten places for an ICE on top of the five-place Baku carry-over — fifteen places in total.
Provisional race start order after Hadjar’s drop (pending Formula1.com’s official grid): Verstappen, Hamilton, Antonelli, Leclerc, Norris, Piastri, Russell, Hadjar, then Gasly and Bortoleto. Lawson, Alonso, Sainz and Stroll follow in the midfield; Colapinto and Lindblad start further back per their penalties, with Lindblad at the rear of the field. Exact back-grid slots remain provisional until the official grid is published.
Sources
Formula1.com published the official Practice 3 classification and the FP3 report (Antonelli 1:36.302, red flags for Bearman debris, soft-run order). The same outlet detailed the grid penalties for Hadjar, Lindblad and Colapinto. At the time of writing the official qualifying results page still returned “No results available.”
Crash.net published the full qualifying results for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, matching the Q3 order headed by Verstappen’s 1:35.130.
The Race covered Verstappen’s first Red Bull pole of 2026, including Hamilton’s “perfect timing” remark, Antonelli’s Q2 track-limits setback, Russell’s weak P8, Lindblad’s tow for Lawson, Alonso’s “miracle” P12, Stroll’s first Q2, Haas’s double Q1 exit and Bottas outqualifying Pérez at Sepang for the first time in six attempts.
RacingNews365 logged the Sepang qualifying results, Verstappen’s first non-Mercedes-powered pole of 2026, Red Bull-Ford’s first partnership pole, Ford’s first F1 pole since Barrichello/Stewart Magny-Cours 1999, and the post-penalty start order with Hadjar dropping to eighth.
PlanetF1 published the Bahrain GP in Malaysia qualifying results, aligning on Verstappen’s pole and the Q3 top ten.
F1 Oversteer reported Verstappen beating Hamilton for his first 2026 pole, including Hadjar’s early Q3 benchmark of 1:35.558, Verstappen’s 1:35.250 then 1:35.130, and Hamilton’s late middle-sector jump past Hadjar.
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