Lewis Hamilton was jubilant after his best qualifying performance in nearly four months at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
The Ferrari driver secured his first front-row start since Barcelona in June with P2 in qualifying on Saturday and will start alongside Max Verstappen, who secured his first pole position of the season for Red Bull.
Mercedes and McLaren, meanwhile, were on the back foot as two drivers who have previous experience at the Sepang circuit – featuring on the calendar for the first time since 2017 – in Verstappen and Hamilton came out on top.
And 41-year-old Hamilton, who was the last driver in the media pen post-session, struggled to hide his excitement when speaking to Sky Sports: “You talk a lot when you’re happier! We’ve been working so hard to progress and dial in.
“It’s been a massive challenge and it’s such fine margins… like balancing a knife on its head. With the power unit and aero platform, brake balance… and the team getting in the right position, tyre temperatures. So many elements have to come together.
“But that was one of my most enjoyable laps of the year, probably my best lap of the year. I wasn’t expecting to be on the front row. Engineers did a really good job, massively thankful.”
Hamilton did admit, however, that Ferrari may struggle to compete for the win on Sunday given their straight-line deficit.
On fighting arch-rival Verstappen, Hamilton said: “I can be really happy with today. In the last race, we were not fast, not sure pace-wise where we’ll be.
“We do carry this deficit on straight-line speed; we’re slightly quicker through the corners than the likes of Red Bull. What does that mean for the race? We have to push more through corners to make up for the losses on the straights, we need to be careful of that.
“We need to run our own race, not be focusing on trying to over-push. Max has the pace to pull away, but if we’re able to be in the fight, that’d be awesome.”
Hamilton currently trails championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who will start in third, by 103 points with eight rounds remaining in the 2026 F1 season.
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