The heat of Sepang always sees the cream rise to the top, and in Sunday’s Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang [October 4], Max Verstappen streaked home to take his first win of 2026. Verstappen, who won at Sepang in 2017, controlled most of the race and ended his 10-month win drought.
“We had a very complicated and tough start to the year with all sorts of problems and just not being competitive enough,” said Verstappen in the FIA press conference. “But throughout the year, the team has been working very hard to understand our issues and bring good performance upgrades to the car and make it more driveable. Step by step, we’ve been getting closer and closer, and today, and of course especially this whole weekend, we’ve been really in good form.
“So, yeah, it’s amazing. I mean, the race, of course, was quite complicated. It was not made easy for us in terms of all the calls that we had to make and then the Safety Car at the end, but we kept cool, and we made all the right calls with the tyres. So, yeah, very, very enjoyable to win here and also have our first victory for our own engine. I mean, it’s an incredible project with a lot of partners and a lot of people that are dedicated to be where we are now. So, yeah, fantastic feeling.”
Kimi Antonelli increased his championship lead with second ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who returned to the podium for the first time since Silverstone. Charles Leclerc finished fourth ahead of Isack Hadjar and Oscar Piastri, while Liam Lawson was best of the midfield in seventh ahead of Fernando Alonso.
George Russell’s title aspirations took a heavy hit with a power unit failure on lap 50, his first non-score since Spa, and stretching the gap to Antonelli to 84 points.
In the Constructors’ battle, Mercedes continues to rule the roost with a 151-point lead over Ferrari, while McLaren remain a distant third after a difficult weekend for the former champions.
The race
Despite hopes of a wet race, the FIA wouldn’t budge on startinng during a passing rain burst and enforced a two-lap wait behind the safety car before even attempting a race start. What followed was a farce: Hamilton’s Ferrari ground to a halt due to software issues, spreading out the pack and forcing the start to be aborted.
The delay split the strategies, with Verstappen and Antonelli going for intermediates while Leclerc and Hamilton went for softs. Norris and Piastri, meanwhile, planned to go long on mediums.
The dry-tire runners struggled with Pierre Gasly going for a spin at turn 6, while Sergio Perez, who was on slicks, pitted for intermediates. Piastri and Gabriel Bortoleto followed suit, changing to intermediates and forgoing their grid positions.
An hour and 40 minutes later, action got underway with Verstappen bogging down on the line, allowing Antonelli and Russell to swoop by. Behind them, Lawson got a great launch from 11th to jump into fourth ahead of Hadjar.
Those on slicks were struggling, with the lack of grip causing them to slip and slide on the damp surface.
With the bit between his teeth, Verstappen got his head down, breezing past Russell for second, and set about chasing down Antonelli. Their duel would be briefly halted on lap 10 when Valtteri Bottas’ Cadillac spun into the gravel at turn 14, triggering a safety car.
With the safety car out, the pit stops began with Antonelli and Russell switching to mediums while Verstappen went for softs.
Antonelli had hoped for a strong restart, but the Italian was powerless to stop Verstappen, who went around the outside of the Italian into turn 2 and retook the lead. Antonelli was caught napping on the exit of turn 4, allowing Russell to move into second, giving Verstappen more breathing room as he set a string of fastest laps.
Antonelli returned the favour on Russell to retake second on the exit of turn 4, but he gave himself more to do by going deep into turn 15, nearly making a trip through the pits.
Lap 33 triggered the pit stop window, with Russell the first of the top three to pit, followed a lap later by Verstappen, retaining his lead over Antonelli, who stopped at the same time.
Williams had seen both cars run in the top eight early on, but with less than 20 laps to go, both were well outside the points when Alex Albon’s gearbox gave out on lap 44. With the Williams stuck in gear, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed, and Red Bull boxed Verstappen first, followed by the Mercedes pair.
The drama wasn’t over, as Russell’s power unit failed under the safety car, sealing his first retirement since Spa and, with it, a hammer blow to his title hopes. In the haze, Norris went straight into the gravel at turn 1 to avoid T-boning Piastri, dropping him to 11th behind Lindblad.
In spite of the chaos, the restart was straightforward, with Verstappen keeping Antonelli behind while Hamilton raised the roof off the stands at Sepang by taking third from Hadjar.
It left Verstappen to secure his 72nd career victory and a Grand Slam after taking the fastest lap on the final tour.
The bad
In a year mired by super clipping, the new power units embarrassed themselves in Malaysia by simply refusing to work in the wet. Already struggling with Sepang’s long straights, rain on race day tested the drivability of the power units.
That is, if they didn’t decide to go on strike. During the first formation laps, fans were treated to the absurd situation of drivers unable to get any power down, forcing them to stop as they triggered a reset.
By the time they got working again, the prospect of a mouthwatering wet-weather duel was gone, and with it another reason to despise AI. The return of the far more user-friendly V8s can’t come soon enough.
Sepang didn’t have a smooth return either, with reports of fans passing out from heatstroke, partly due to the lack of water fountains. Buses were overcrowded, leaving thousands of fans to either walk back on foot or remain stranded until late evening.
Malaysia saw another Mercedes power unit failure, and Russell again took the brunt of the bad luck. Already on the back foot after managing only seventh in qualifying, Russell briefly showed Antonelli a clean pair of heels by taking second, only for the Italian to repay the favour before the halfway mark.
Third and 15 points looked in the bag for Russell until his power unit had other ideas, leaving him out of the race and wondering what he had to do to find some luck.
The good
After exiting on the opening lap at Zandvoort, some doubted whether Verstappen would go winless in 2026. But in Malaysia, the four-time world champion showed why he’s still the gold standard and how, when everything clicks, he is unstoppable.
But in Malaysia, it finally clicked for Red Bull, who had the fastest car all weekend, helping Verstappen take his first pole of 2026. A mediocre start left Verstappen down in third by the end of lap 1, but he quickly reeled in the Mercedes pair and, by a quarter of the way through, was well in the lead.
From then on, it was vintage Verstappen, and he didn’t put a foot wrong all afternoon to take his second win at Sepang and Ford’s 177th in F1, its first with Red Bull.
While Mercedes had to play second fiddle to Red Bull, Antonelli still managed to bag a good haul of points, with a well-executed drive to second helping him inch close to the championship. But Antonelli could be thankful Hamilton had to come from a mile back to take third after a race mired by yet another puzzling Ferrari strategy.
At a track where he’s previously performed well, Hamilton was Verstappen’s closest challenger in qualifying, setting up a thrilling battle royale between the two former title rivals. A miserable first stint on wets left him with a lot to do, but Hamilton doesn’t tend to give up easily, and once he was on the right tyre, he was rapid, passing car after car to save Ferrari’s blushes.
Fresh from re-signing with Aston Martin, Alonso had his strongest weekend of the season, qualifying a solid 12th before rolling back the years to drive a strong race to finish a season’s best eighth.
Grid walk
Sepang’s return brought another test of the new regulations and, for Martin Brundle, a chance to do a rain dance. Alan Permane remained cautious as Racing Bulls continued to chase fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, while Jean Alesi, a master in wet conditions, expressed his joy at the possibility of a wet race.
Stefano Domenicali and Mohammed Ben Sulayem shared Alesi’s view, with the former hailing the underfire organisers for getting the race ready in just 68 days. Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim didn’t rule out Sepang returning on a full-time basis, but whether the appetite for a long-term deal remains to be seen.
Alesi’s prayers for an on-time start weren’t answered, as Brundle had to deliver the bad news that it would be delayed: not a surprise, with rain lashing down at a rapid rate.
The Driver
So good he had to do it twice, though nearly a decade apart. It’s been a long time since Abu Dhabi, but nearly 300 days away from the top step finally came to a close in Sepang for Verstappen, with a stellar weekend.
After knocking on the door in Madrid and Baku, Verstappen finally had the car in the sweet spot, and he dazzled in qualifying to take pole by nearly three tenths. Although his start wasn’t strong, Verstappen didn’t panic and drove his typical race, pulling out a lead of around 10 seconds at one stage and could have won by more if it weren’t for the safety car.
The success in Malaysia will surely give Verstappen the confidence to fight for the 2027 world title, even if a repeat of his 2025 heroics is unlikely.
F1 Glossary word of the day
Cinturato [or belted in English]: Pirelli’s wet-weather tyre, named after the company’s engineer Luigi Emanueli. Whether the creation Emanueli was named after will ever see any racing remains unlikely after Sunday’s fiasco.
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