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Bahrain GP in Malaysia · qualifying

Sepang: Verstappen takes his first pole of the year as the upgraded Mercedes stays half a second away

A pole built in two sectors out of three, and a Saturday the team with eleven poles from fifteen cannot explain yet.

Muretto · Redazione tecnica·Q
The pole The pole lap, sector by sector

Max Verstappen took pole for the Bahrain Grand Prix, held at Sepang this year, with a 1:35.130. It is his first of the season and Red Bull's first. Lewis Hamilton is second for Ferrari, 0.298 s behind.

Until Baku, pole had almost always gone to Mercedes, eleven times out of fifteen. The other four went three times to Lando Norris and once to Pierre Gasly.

The advantage does not come from a single place, and it changes hands twice. After the first sector Verstappen is 0.138 s ahead, in the second he gives 0.304 back to Hamilton and in the third he gains 0.464. Among the laps that set the official qualifying times, the fastest first and third sectors are his, the fastest second sector is Hamilton's.

Practice had not pointed to a favourite. Verstappen led the first session, Charles Leclerc the second, Kimi Antonelli the third. Verstappen said Red Bull had been chasing pole for many Grands Prix, and that it comes from where the team was at the start of the season.

Two laps compared on speed (top) and the reconstructed cumulative gap (bottom, positive = VER ahead). The lower curve is a reconstruction: at the sector boundaries it reads 0.085 and -0.228 s against 0.138 and -0.166 s from the official times, and at the line 0.293 s against the official 0.298 s. Between one boundary and the next no independent measurement checks it.Where the lap was decided: sector 3 makes the differencespeed on the two fastest laps + cumulative advantage · Qualifying Malaysia 2026S1 · VER 0.138S2 · HAM 0.304S3 · VER 0.46450100150200250300350km/hHAMVER−0.360+0.50reconstructed gap (s)reconstructed 0.293 s · official 0.298 sfinish line500100015002000250030003500400045005000distance on the lap (m) — top = faster, bottom = who is ahead on the clock
Two laps compared on speed (top) and the reconstructed cumulative gap (bottom, positive = VER ahead). The lower curve is a reconstruction: at the sector boundaries it reads 0.085 and -0.228 s against 0.138 and -0.166 s from the official times, and at the line 0.293 s against the official 0.298 s. Between one boundary and the next no independent measurement checks it.
Mercedes The new package and fourth place

Mercedes came to Sepang with its biggest package of updates since Canada. In qualifying its best car is Antonelli's, fourth and 0.501 s off pole. All season, only in Hungary had the best Mercedes been fourth.

George Russell is eighth. He is 0.741 s off pole and 0.240 behind his team-mate.

Compared with Verstappen, Antonelli loses 0.304 s in the opening part of the lap and 0.247 in the last. In the second sector he is the quicker of the two, by 0.050.

The team is still looking for the reason. Toto Wolff said the car seems very draggy: for the first time it is losing a lot of time on the straights, especially to Verstappen, and in the slow corners it does not turn because of too much understeer. The team, he added, still believes the upgrade works, and needs to understand why not at Sepang.

Russell links the problem to the tyres: the track wears them very hard, the tarmac is broken up and rough, and for whatever reason it is hitting Mercedes more than the others. Antonelli had lost a lap in the second part of qualifying, deleted by the stewards for going beyond the limits at turn six. In his view that error did not cost him pole, because Verstappen was out of reach.

The race The rest of the field, and what is left to see

Third is Isack Hadjar in the other Red Bull, 0.428 s back, but he will take a grid penalty for an internal combustion engine fitted beyond the regulation allocation.

Leclerc is fifth, ahead of the two McLarens, sixth and seventh and five thousandths apart: Norris on 1:35.757, Oscar Piastri on 1:35.762.

Starting first, Verstappen said, there is only one target: to win. On Sunday the comparison moves to long-run pace, which a single lap does not measure, and it will show whether Mercedes' problem is the same as on Saturday.