Max Verstappen won the rain-delayed Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia by 2.307 seconds from Kimi Antonelli at Sepang, taking his first victory of 2026 and the first for Red Bull Ford Powertrains. Lewis Hamilton recovered to third, while George Russell’s late retirement left Antonelli 84 points clear.
Sepang, Malaysia: Formula 1 came back to Sepang after nine years away and was greeted by a thunderstorm. The rain arrived as drivers prepared for the grid, the scheduled 3pm start came and went, and by the time the chequered flag fell almost three and a half hours later the race had produced software failures, a suspended start, split tyre gambles and two Safety Cars.
Through all of it, Verstappen had the quickest car. He had taken his and Red Bull’s first pole position of the season on Saturday, ahead of Hamilton, and on Sunday he turned it into the 72nd win of his career and his first since the 2025 season finale in Abu Dhabi. It came at the circuit where he won the last Malaysian Grand Prix, in 2017, and after a season that included questions over his future at Red Bull in July and an opening-lap crash at his final home race at Zandvoort.
A Start That Would Not Start
Standing water forced Race Control to delay the start. When the field finally left the grid behind the Safety Car, about 40 minutes late and on intermediate tyres, cars began losing drive. Verstappen told his team he could not accelerate. Hamilton’s Ferrari stopped on the start/finish straight before getting going again. With the field stuttering, the start procedure was suspended under a red flag and the cars were sent back to the pit lane. The FIA later called the glitch “unprecedented” and issued software changes to the teams.
By the second attempt the rain had stopped and the track was drying, which raised the question of slick tyres. Thirteen of the 22 drivers, including both Ferraris and both McLarens, chose them. Verstappen and both Mercedes drivers stayed on intermediates.
Verstappen Takes Back What the Start Took Away
The intermediates were right, but the start still went against the polesitter. Antonelli and Russell beat Verstappen into Turn 1, while the slick-shod runners slid backwards. Verstappen passed Russell before a Safety Car on lap nine, called when Valtteri Bottas spun his Cadillac out of the race.
That neutralisation was the window for the intermediate runners to switch to slicks. Red Bull fitted soft tyres to Verstappen’s car; Mercedes put both its drivers on mediums. At the restart, Verstappen went around the outside of Antonelli at Turn 1 on lap 13 to take the lead. Russell also passed his team-mate, but Antonelli was back in second by lap 21, and by then Verstappen was several seconds up the road. He kept extending the gap until a late Virtual Safety Car, for Alex Albon’s stopped Williams, became a full Safety Car with the Red Bull more than ten seconds clear.
Hamilton’s Comeback and Russell’s Heartbreak
Ferrari’s slick-tyre call left Hamilton and Leclerc more than a minute off the lead. Leclerc pitted for intermediates after early contact with Nico Hulkenberg damaged his front wing. Hamilton stayed out, the first Safety Car closed the field up, and, having fallen as low as 18th, he worked his way back through the order.
Verstappen briefly ceded the lead to Antonelli by pitting under the Virtual Safety Car, regaining it when the Mercedes stopped a lap later. Behind the Safety Car, Russell, running third, pulled off with an apparent power-unit failure. Lando Norris was caught out as the pack slowed and ran through the gravel at Turn 1.
Verstappen managed the final restart and won by 2.307 seconds. Hamilton swept around Isack Hadjar for third, and Leclerc followed him past the Red Bull to take fourth.
“It’s a really nice one, after the year that we’ve had and the progression that we’ve made,” Verstappen said. In a team statement, he added that winning in the first year as a new power unit manufacturer was “honestly just incredible”.
Hamilton described the day as “definitely one of the most memorable”. Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur was more direct about the tyre decision on the grid: “in the end, we got the call wrong.”
An 84-Point Cushion With Seven to Go
Russell had cut Antonelli’s lead to 66 points by winning in Azerbaijan. Sepang pushed it back to 84, with Antonelli on 320 points and Russell on 236. Hamilton is third on 214, Leclerc fourth on 191, and Norris and Verstappen are level on 188.
“It is pure bad luck, but it still hurts,” Russell said. Toto Wolff, Mercedes’ head of motorsport, was blunter still: “This has been our worst weekend of the season.”
Seven rounds remain, starting with the Singapore Grand Prix on October 9-11, the season’s final Sprint weekend.
Result: 1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1:47:14.808; 2 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +2.307s; 3 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +4.919s; 4 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +7.258s; 5 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +8.571s; 6 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +9.454s; 7 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +12.753s; 8 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +13.372s; 9 Lando Norris (McLaren) +13.993s; 10 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +15.928s
Pole position: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
Retirements: George Russell (Mercedes), Alex Albon (Williams), Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac)
Drivers’ championship: Antonelli 320, Russell 236, Hamilton 214
