Verstappen hustled his Honda-powered Red Bull around the popular figure-of-eight layout in one minute, 29.304 seconds
Sebastian Vettel continued his imperious march towards a fourth consecutive Formula One world championship by storming to pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday after dominating the two days of practice.
The 35-year-old recently took part in a 'Black Lives Matter' march in London but said he was supporting racial equality rather than taking any political stance.
Ahead of the Jeddah Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton parted ways with long-term performance coach Angella Cullen.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc secured pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday after a furious Max Verstappen was forced to abandon his fastest lap for fear of running out of fuel.
Verstappen goes into the Formula One record books as the pole setter for the weekend, however, regardless of where he starts on Sunday.
The strangest of campaigns crammed 17 races, instead of the record 22 originally envisaged, into little more than five months from July with four triple-headers.
Formula One champions Mercedes can rack up their eighth successive victory on Sunday but even if they do, a winning streak must end for either Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg in Bahrain. Rosberg is chasing his fifth win in a row after starting the season triumphantly in Australia to follow the three victories he racked up at the end of 2015. Hamilton, the triple world champion who finds himself behind his German team mate in the standings for the first time since 2014, is on for a hat-trick after winning in Bahrain for the past two years. The Briton is the favourite at a circuit that has yet to witness a Rosberg victory but Ferrari, who roared into the lead at the start in Melbourne with Sebastian Vettel followed by Kimi Raikkonen, also fancy their chances.
Formula One championship leader Nico Rosberg stormed to pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix in a mixed Saturday qualifying session for Mercedes, with world champion Lewis Hamilton left at the back of the grid after engine trouble prevented him setting a time.
Formula One world championLewis Hamilton has beencleared by New Zealand police after he was investigated over his apparent video selfie while driving a motorbike in Auckland. The British driver, who is touring New Zealand before this weekend's Australian Grand Prix, posted a video to his Snapdeal handle, in which he is seen driving a Harley Davidson on the motorway. It has been illegal to use a mobile while driving in New Zealand since 2009. His constant posts on social media caught the attention of local police. However, they have decided not to take any further action on Hamilton citing a lack of sufficient evidence, Stuff.co.nz reported.
The front row lockout was a record-equalling 65th for champions Mercedes.
Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton crashed into the tyre wall but still stayed top of the timesheets after a rain-lashed Canadian Grand Prix practice on Friday.
Lewis Hamilton battled back from an agonisingly slow start to win the Italian Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday and slash team mate Nico Rosberg's Formula One championship lead to 22 points.
Hamilton wrapped up his record-equalling seventh title in Turkey last month and picked up his 11th win of the season in Bahrain on Sunday. Mercedes have already won the constructors' title for an unprecedented seventh year in a row.
- Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg's last lap coming together at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on Sunday put the sport on front and back pages, reviving a narrative of battling team mates going back to the days of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
'I'm so grateful for everyone who helped me be here, to raise the bar and lift the cup'
Max Verstappen will have his first shot at clinching the Formula One title in Saudi Arabia in two weeks' time but Red Bull's championship leader could also see his advantage disappear entirely.
Sergio Perez won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from pole position in a Red Bull one-two on Sunday with Max Verstappen staying top of the championship after racing from 15th to second.
The Ferrari driver's best time of one minute 16.231 seconds was close to the 2018 Spanish Grand Prix pole time by Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes.
Germany's Nico Rosberg won the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday to end team mate Lewis Hamilton's run of five successive victories and cut the Briton's championship lead to 17 points with one race remaining.
World champion Lewis Hamilton, back in the car after his COVID-19-enforced absence at last week's Sakhir Grand Prix, was third but only 0.086 seconds off the pace.
Former world champions Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button are among six drivers hit with a plethora of penalties on the grid for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Red Bull's Dutch 20-year-old Max Verstappen took the chequered flag in second place with Kimi Raikkonen completing the podium for Ferrari and Australian Daniel Ricciardo finishing fourth for Red Bull.
Formula One plans to start its coronavirus-ravaged season in May after cancelling this weekend's opener in Australia on Friday and postponing the next three races in Bahrain, Vietnam and China. Confusingly, while Formula One said in a statement it expected to begin the championship in Europe at the end of May, the governing FIA's statement referred to May 1. Both may prove optimistic as the virus spreads across the continent.
By virtue of this show, Sahara Force India collected six points from the race and consolidate its fourth position at the Constructor's standings with 101 points.
The German, taking his fourth win of the season, took the chequered flag 0.9 seconds ahead of Kimi Raikkonen with Hamilton finishing fourth after sportingly surrendering third place to team mate Valtteri Bottas on the last lap.
That was only the 12th time that a driver had started that low and won.
'We have finalised the investigation into Sebastian Vettel's tyre at Spa. Detailed conclusions from the technical analysis will be presented at Monza'
Red Bull closed the gap to champions Mercedes in the constructors' standings to one point.
Max Verstappen leads Red Bull front row sweep in Bahrain
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel is sure to win this year's Formula One title and Ferrari's focus is now on finishing ahead of Mercedes in the constructors' championship, Fernando Alonso said on Saturday.
Lewis Hamilton said Real Madrid player Vinicius Jr as 'incredibly brave' for his response to racist insults in Spain.
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel has joined the bandwagon of drivers opposing the newly proposed aggregate qualifying format of the Formula One. According to the latest qualifying format, a driver's two best laps in each of the three knockout sessions will be combined in order to determine the grid position. Meanwhile, the 90-second qualifying format that saw the drivers get eliminated one by one rather than being dismissed at the end of each session in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and in the Bahrain Grand Prix would be dropped. Hitting back at the new format, the Ferrari driver compared the new system with the circus and insisted that the F1 should focus only on racing, the Guardian reported Echoing similar views, Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff described the new format as `madness` and said that all the teams wanted to revert back to that of the previous season.
Red Bull's double World champion Max Verstappen swept to pole position at the Mexico City Grand Prix on Saturday with his sights set on a record 14th victory of the season.
'I still need to beat all the opposition and Lewis, always need to reckon with him because with a bit of luck and safety cars at the right moment there is no reason why he can't come from far back and through the grid'
Team principal Otmar Szafnauer and technical Andrew Green said in a video interview at last weekend's British Grand Prix that it was time to 'give credit where credit was due'.
Finland's Valtteri Bottas seized the first Formula One victory of his career at the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday after jumping both Ferraris at the start and then holding his nerve over the tense closing laps.
Former Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn says 70th Anniversary race winner Max Verstappen reminds him of Formula One great Michael Schumacher. Brawn masterminded Schumacher's seven world championships with Benetton (1994 and 1995) and Ferrari (2000-04) and was team boss at Mercedes when the German made his comeback from 2010-2012.
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