Max Verstappen-Lewis Hamilton showdown sets up F1 history repeat in Malaysia

Max Verstappen will start Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia from pole position with Lewis Hamilton alongside him in second, setting up an exciting battle for Sunday's race.

It has also produced the possibility of a repeat of the battle that we saw last time F1 ventured to Sepang in 2017.

Verstappen topped qualifying for Red Bull on Saturday, continuing the sharp uptick in form that followed the team's double podium in Baku last time out. 

Hamilton took second on the road following a late improvement to consolidate a front row for Ferrari, in a season that has had its ups and downs for the Scuderia.

It is a near-perfect mirror of 2017, when Verstappen qualified third for Red Bull but powered past Hamilton's Mercedes on lap four to win, while the seven-time champion settled for second after leading from pole. 

That race was also notable for Kimi Raikkonen, who qualified second for Ferrari but failed even to start after a turbocharger and inlet manifold duct problem struck on his way to the grid.

Nine years on, there is a Kimi in the top three once again, only this time it is Antonelli rather than Raikkonen. 

The Mercedes driver qualified fourth after a mistake in Q2 cost him an extra set of soft tyres and left him short on new rubber for his final run in Q3, but a grid penalty for Red Bull's Isack Hadjar is set to promote him into third place on the starting grid.

What happened nine years ago?

That 2017 victory was only the second of Verstappen's career, occurring one day after his 20th birthday in a season that had been ravaged by reliability woes. 

He made his move on Hamilton early, having clocked that the Mercedes was struggling for traction out of the corners. The decisive pass came into Turn 1, where Verstappen was helped by DRS and careful management of his energy deployment, while Hamilton was dealing with power unit de-rating after running down his battery charge defending in the opening laps. 

Hamilton chose not to fight hard for the inside line, wary of the risk of contact given his focus on the title battle with Sebastian Vettel.

Once through, Verstappen immediately showed stronger race pace, pulling away from Hamilton and extending his lead through the single pit-stop phase to control the margin comfortably to the flag.

"In the beginning the car felt good and I saw Lewis was struggling a bit with traction... Then once I got past Lewis I could just control my own race,” Verstappen said afterwards. 

“The car was very good. If I needed to speed up I sped up. Yeah, it's amazing. It's a very tough race but of course incredible to win," 

Hamilton, who had started from pole, was magnanimous in defeat, conceding that Mercedes simply didn't have the pace to resist Red Bull that weekend.

"A big congratulations to Max and a happy birthday. He did a fantastic job today... The race was a tough one. 

“Obviously they just had the upper hand on us today... I feel good, but I think we have some work to do with the car. Obviously we didn't have the pace today, this weekend, so there's still work to do," Hamilton said.

Over the radio, Red Bull boss Christian Horner couldn't contain his delight, telling his driver: "Super, super job Max. Welcome to being a 20-year-old. Great start to a new decade for you, well done."

Verstappen's 20s would continue to bring success as, over the following eight years, he added a further 69 race wins to his achievements, as well as four world championships.