Mexican team mate Sergio Perez qualified second fastest in a front row lockout for Red Bull, 15 years after the team took their first win at the Shanghai International Circuit with Sebastian Vettel.
Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton has tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss the upcoming Sakhir Grand Prix.
Alonso, who will make his McLaren debut after winning the Formula One championship for the past two years with Renault, had to make do with second place on the starting grid.
Hulkenberg is the team's reserve driver and has stood in for them three times already since he last raced full time in Formula One with Renault in 2019.
His previous best was 97 in February, which he had attained after winning the Chennai Open, an ATP Challenger series event.
Red Bull's triple Formula One world champion Max Verstappen won a US Grand Prix sprint race from pole position on Saturday after an early challenge from Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton.
"I do not feel as much under pressure in Sepang than in Melbourne," said Narain Karthikeyan.
Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia won the season-ending Valencia Grand Prix on Sunday to claim a second straight MotoGP World Championship after closest contender Jorge Martin crashed out following a collision with Marc Marquez.
Red Bull's triple World champion Max Verstappen wrapped up a year of unprecedented dominance with his record-extending 19th win in 22 races at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday.
McLaren are leading the constructor's championship but are only 29 points ahead of Ferrari, with Leclerc an obvious threat and team mate Carlos Sainz qualifying fifth and Mercedes' George Russell sixth.
Formula One outfit Red Bull and British luxury carmaker Aston Martin have announced a technology partnership to build an Aston Martin-branded supercar. Red Bull's chief designer Adrian Newey will work with Aston Martin's design boss Marek Reichman on the car, dubbed Project AM-RB-001, Red Bull said on Thursday. "This is a very exciting project for everyone at Red Bull Racing," team principal Christian Horner said in a statement
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc claimed his second win of the Formula One season
The Dutchman's run of nine successive wins was snapped as he broke down on lap four with a brake problem.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo won the Italian Grand Prix in a stunning McLaren one-two with Lando Norris at Monza on Sunday.
Lando Norris led a McLaren front row sweep in qualifying for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday
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.
Four-time Formula One champion and Red Bull racer Sebastian Vettel has warned his team that they might be facing a debacle unless they improve their car before the season opens at the Australian Grand Prix in two weeks.
Alpine's target is to fight for the championship within 100 races of the start of Formula One's new rules era, which will begin with the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on March 20.
Qualifying for the season-opening Australian Formula One Grand Prix will be completed before the race on Sunday after heavy rain forced the postponement of the final two sections on Saturday.
Max Verstappen won Formula One's first Chinese Grand Prix in five years on Sunday.
Max Verstappen celebrated a record 10th win in a row by leading Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez one-two at Ferrari's home Italian Grand Prix
Starting second behind pole-sitter Hamilton, Bottas got the jump on the Briton during a typically messy start at Albert Park and ended up cruising to his fourth win by some 20.80 seconds after delaying a tyre-change.
Formula One leader Max Verstappen handed his Red Bull team a home pole position for Saturday's sprint race at the Austrian Grand Prix after Mercedes rivals Lewis Hamilton and George Russell crashed in qualifying.
Olympic bronze medalist Saina Nehwal produced a dominating performance to lift her second title of the season, winning the $ 750,000 Star Australian Super Series after beating Spain's Carolina Marin in the summit clash Sydney on Sunday.
Dutch Formula One driver Giedo van der Garde dropped his legal action against Sauber, allowing the team to race in this weekend's season-opening Australian Grand Prix without him.
Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen has announced he will hang up his helmet and gloves and call time on an illustrious Formula One career at the end of the season.
Nico Rosberg drew first blood for Mercedes in the new Formula One season with a dominant Australian Grand Prix victory on Sunday after pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton and world champion Sebastian Vettel retired with reliability problems.
Nico Rosberg won a dramatic Australian Grand Prix on Sunday after a bungled tyre strategy dashed Sebastian Vettel's chances of a season-opening triumph and Fernando Alonso survived a spectacular crash that left his McLaren wrecked.
Paul di Resta said the upcoming Malaysian Grand Prix would be an interesting one as it is considered as one of the toughest races of the year.
The first big technical controversy of Formula One's new engine era has its day in court on Monday with champions Red Bull confident they have a strong case in appealing Daniel Ricciardo's Australian Grand Prix exclusion.
Sebastian Vettel made full use of the virtual safety car to sneak in front of Lewis Hamilton midway the race before the German held off the frustrated Briton to win the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Sebastian Vettel's record run of nine consecutive race victories ended on Sunday when the quadruple world champion retired his Red Bull from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix with a reliability problem.
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has warned against possible technical 'trickery' as Formula One enters a new and uncertain era.
Red Bull will put a 'very different' car on the track for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix from the model which disappointed during the last test in Bahrain, reigning champion Sebastian Vettel said on Thursday.
Fernando Alonso hopes to be racing for McLaren at this weekend's Chinese Formula One Grand Prix but the Spaniard says he is taking nothing for granted ahead of a fitness test at the Shanghai circuit. The double world champion fractured his ribs in a crash at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 20 and the governing FIA's medical team then ruled him out of the subsequent race in Bahrain. He will undergo more tests at the Chinese circuit on Thursday before the third round of the 21-race season. "It was disappointing to be told I couldn't race in Bahrain, but I fully respected the decision of the FIA medical team," he said on Tuesday in a team preview for the race. "While I hope I'll be back in the cockpit on Friday (for practice), until I get the all-clear from the doctors to race, whenever that may be, we cannot assume anything.
Motor sport's governing body cast doubt on the future of world championship events in Australia on Saturday after legal action by Minardi at the country's Formula One Grand Prix.
Jenson Button has hit out at former teammate Lewis Hamilton's description of McLaren as a team where he felt suffocated on Thursday, admitting the drivers work hard but describing the freedom they enjoy as "phenomenal".
Team-by-team prospects for the Formula One season starting in Melbourne, Australia, on March 17
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances