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‘Finally’: Max ends long F1 drought in quali statement as ‘not good’ error costs leader
Verstappen claims first pole of 2026 | 01:57Max Verstappen has sent a statement, dominating qualifying at the Bahrain Grand Prix to claim his first pole position of the season.
Verstappen looked like the man to beat from the very start on Saturday and ended up topping all three qualifying sessions, finishing three tenths clear of second-placed Lewis Hamilton.
“It’s fantastic,” he said post-qualifying. “We have been trying many grands prix to get pole. Sometimes a bit closer than others but to finally get it, from where we started the season, pretty incredible.
“I’m happy with today and, for sure, I’m going to try and win tomorrow. When you start first, that’s the target. ” Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar qualified third, however, he will drop down to eighth with a grid penalty after taking his seventh internal combustion engine of the campaign. That means Australian Oscar Piastri will move up into sixth, just behind McLaren teammate Lando Norris.
Rounding out the top five was Kimi Antonelli in third and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in fifth, with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto making up the remainder of the top 10 while George Russell will be disappointed with P7 after his win at Baku. The lack of pace from Russell left Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff perplexed, telling Sky Sports it was “very difficult to understand”.
“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 and the tarmac is the different to all the tracks,” he said. “It looked really good this morning. We seemed to have, at least with Kimi, made a step in understanding. Russell dominates, Mclaren disaster!
| 02:24 It was Red Bull setting the tone early in Q3, with Verstappen leading the way 0.38s ahead of Hadjar and 0.495s quicker than third-placed Hamilton. At that point it looked like the pace of Verstappen would be hard to beat and that ended up being a sign of things to come, with Hamilton also impressing throughout all three sessions as he sealed his first front-row start since Barcelona.
There was some pressure on the championship leader after he had a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits at turn six. Antonelli had finished fourth fastest but had to quickly mentally regroup and get back on the track, which he had all to himself and hardly looked bothered as he safely made it through to Q3.
The issue, however, was that Antonelli needed to use another set of soft tyres to record that time and it left him “a bit compromised” according to Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord.
“You lose a set in a qualifying that’s so tight, where we are on the back foot. That’s not good. ”In the end, Antonelli went for his one shot at a flying lap with around six minutes to go in the session and was third-fastest. Elsewhere, both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll made it into Q2 for the first time this season for a rare bright spot in what has otherwise been a dismal 2026 season.
It came at the expense of Nico Hulkenberg, with the Audi driver being the biggest surprise casualty to be eliminated in Q1.3 Isack Hadjar +0.428s*6 Lando Norris +0.627s9 Pierre Gasly +2.080s12 Fernando Alonso +0.406s15 Franco Colapinto +11.607s*18 Oliver Bearman +0.097s21 Valtteri Bottas +0.728s
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