F1 Bahrain GP LIVE: Verstappen on pole, Piastri 6th on the grid as racing returns to Sepang

Oscar Piastri is bracing himself for another “challenging” day in his McLaren at the Sepang International Circuit after he could only finish seventh in qualifying at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

With his teammate, world champion Lando Norris, only finishing sixth on Saturday, the Australian admitted it was “going to be tough” for McLaren to battle out of the midfield as Max Verstappen looked the man to beat again following his first pole of the season.

It felt almost like the clock had been wound back with Verstappen and his old rival, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, back on the front row together, but McLaren looked out of the picture with Norris conceding the team was “struggling” at the Bahrain race that’s been moved to Malaysia because of the Middle East conflict.

“It was tricky out there for sure,” sighed Piastri, who’ll start from sixth on the grid after third-placed qualifier Isack Hadjar suffered a five-place penalty for an engine change.

Max Verstappen will start from pole position after blistering qualifying sessions for both Red Bulls on Saturday.

Verstappen’s teammate Isack Hadjar was third-fastest in qualifying but is serving a five-place grid penalty, which pushed McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri up to fifth and sixth, respectively.

Verstappen is gunning for his first race win of the season.

Here’s the starting grid.

Welcome to our coverage of the Bahrain Grand Prix, which confusingly is not in Bahrain.

I’m Hannah Kennelly and will be bringing you live coverage of the race which is actually taking place at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur.

Back in April, the US attacks on Iran, and Iran’s subsequent strikes on countries in the Middle East including Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, meant the original Bahrain GP had to be cancelled.

It had been hoped the race could be rescheduled when the conflict in the region settled, but instead Malaysia came to the rescue.