Verstappen claims pole at Grand Prix in Malaysia

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

It is the first time two great rivals have shared the front row of the grid since the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2023.

Verstappen's teammate, Isack Hadjar, was third fastest but will start eighth due to a grid penalty, with championship leader Kimi Antonelli in third alongside Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

Oscar Piastri was pipped to sixth by his teammate Lando Norris, but will move up a position as a result of Hadjar's penalty to start sixth as McLaren locked out the third row of the grid.

George Russell, who so spectacularly won the last Grand Prix in Azerbaijan last week, will start seventh in what was an alarming performance for Mercedes, who came to Malaysia with a big upgrade package.

"It's very difficult to understand," Mercedes boss Toto Wolff told Sky Sports. 

"We have been a little bit caught out on Friday with some car behaviour that we didn't see all year.

"But then you can say it's very hot, with the tarmac very different to all the tracks. 

"[We] looked really good in the morning; we seemed to have, at least with Kimi [Antonelli], made a step in understanding. And then in qualifying, it was a little bit back to what we saw before — just no performance."

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 1 minute 35.130 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 [it's] pretty incredible," said Verstappen as he eyes his first win of the season.

Hamilton, who also has one victory in Sepang, struggled with tyre degradation in 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."