Max Verstappen took pole in Sepang with a 1:35.250 — but the real shock came behind him: Lewis Hamilton put Ferrari on the front row, while Kimi Antonelli, who topped every practice session all weekend, had to settle for third.

Isack Hadjar flashed podium pace in Q3 with a 1:35.696, only for a new engine component to cost him a five-place grid penalty — a shiny lap time that will mean precisely nothing come Sunday. Charles Leclerc was 0.274s off the pace in Q2, while George Russell closed out Q3 at 1:36.032, well short of what Mercedes hoped for after their upgrade.

The session wasn’t short on drama either: both Verstappen and Fernando Alonso picked up black-and-white flags for driving unnecessarily slowly on an out-lap, while Antonelli lost his best lap time to a track-limits breach at Turn 6 — an expensive slip after leading the timesheets all weekend.

The penalty list keeps growing: Arvid Lindblad starts from the back of the grid after an engine change, and Franco Colapinto drops five places for causing his collision with Gasly and Norris in Baku. Q1 claimed Perez, Bottas, Stroll, Bearman, Albon and Ocon.

Source: RacingNews365 (https://racingnews365.com/live-2026-f1-bahrain-grand-prix-in-malaysia—sepang-qualifying)