Max Verstappen takes his first pole position of the season as he goes fastest in first qualifying session in Malaysia for almost a decade.
Q1
Aston Martin have had a difficult season up to this point, with the car seriously lacking in pace compared to the competition. However, on a week where they announced that Alonso and Stroll would stay for 2027, the team managed to get both cars through to Q2 for the first time all year.
Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg that would’ve hoped that they would be able to make it through to the second part of qualifying, particularly as each of their teammates had comfortably managed it. However, they both made the exact same mistake only moments apart, having big lock ups into the difficult turn 14 on their final laps, losing valuable time and resigning them to the drop zone.
ELIMINATED
17. Nico Hulkenberg – Audi +0.087
18. Ollie Bearman – Haas +0.097
19. Esteban Ocon – Haas +0.350
20. Alex Albon – Williams +0.717
21. Valtteri Bottas – Cadillac +0.728
22. Sergio Perez – Cadillac +1.050
Q2
There are multiple drivers facing grid penalties this weekend, which led to some team games being played by the midfield runners in Q2. Lindblad, one of the penalised drivers, provided a nice slipstream to teammate Liam Lawson on the long straight down to the final corner as they tried to bring him up to the top 10. Although it initially looked to have worked, Gabriel Bortoleto would spoil their fun by squeezing into the top 10 on his own.
The team games were more successful at Alpine. Franco Colapinto, who received a penalty following the crash he caused that also took out his teammate last week, helped Gasly get into the top 10 by giving slipstream to him in the same place that Lindblad was doing it, but Gasly was able to make the lap stick to go 9th fastest.
ELIMINATED
11. Liam Lawson – Racing Bulls +0.209
12. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +0.406
13. Carlos Sainz – Williams +0.713
14. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +0.752
15. Franco Colapinto – Alpine NO TIME (10 PLACE GRID PENALTY)
16. Arvid Lindblad – Racing Bulls NO TIME (30 PLACE GRID PENALTY)
Q3
George Russell would be the first to set a lap time, but it would not be a particularly good one with Mercedes looking to be a bit off the pace so far this weekend, having been usurped by both Red Bull, Mclaren and Ferrari drivers to get pushed down the order.
Antonelli used up an extra set of tyres in Q2 trying to make it into the top 10, so he only allowed himself one attempt to get as high as he could in the pecking order. With a clear track ahead of him, he was only able to manage a time good enough for 3rd. Now he would just have to hope that no one behind would be able to go faster.
The Red Bull drivers, who were provisionally locking out the front row, would be the first two to set their final times, and while Hadjar would not be able to improve, Verstappen would manage to do so by more than a tenth, giving him a margin of just over 4 tenths to 2nd place.
That margin wouldn’t last for long though, as Hamilton was on a very quick lap and initially looked as though he could challenge for pole, though his time was only good enough for 2nd, 3 tenths behind Verstappen.
The rest of the field would try to push their cars to the front of the grid, but none of them would get close to even challenging for pole position. This left Antonelli with the 4th fastest time, meaning he would start tomorrow’s race in 3rd after Hadjar takes his 5 place grid penalty.
Qualifying Results
1. Max Verstappen – Red Bull 1:35.130
2. Lewis Hamilton – Ferrari +0.298
3. Isack Hadjar – Red Bull +0.428 (30 PLACE GRID PENALTY)
4. Kimi Antonelli – Mercedes +0.501
5. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari+0.536
6. Lando Norris – McLaren +0.627
7. Oscar Piastri – McLaren +0.632
8. George Russell – Mercedes +0.741
9. Pierre Gasly – Alpine +2.080
10. Gabriel Bortoleto – Audi +2.543
