Max Verstappen claimed his maiden win of the 2026 season after holding off Mercedes at a thrilling Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
Verstappen came into the 56-lap race as the pole-sitter and took the chequered flag first ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Lewis Hamilton delivered an inspired comeback after Ferrari’s tyre gamble failed at the start to take the final podium place.
Heavy rain delays start, and Ferrari gremlins cause pre-race chaos
The racing gods made their move, with 30 minutes to go to lights out, as the heavens opened up over Sepang.
Teams and drivers had already started deliberating on whether to start the 56-lap race on the Intermediates or the Wets. The heavy rain shower and the soaked track suggested the extremes, but the abrasive tarmac had many erring on the side of caution.
The FIA took the call to delay the start owing to the standing water out on track. Once the weather settled in, the drivers started the formation lap behind Bernd Mayländer.
Lewis Hamilton fell back on the formation lap with a suspected software issue. With the Ferrari pit wall on the job, he got back up to pace again. That said, the chaos meant the start procedure was suspended with multiple Ferrari-powered cars facing issues.
How the race unfolded
But as the five lights finally went out at Sepang in F1 for the first time since 2017, pole-sitter Max Verstappen, who interestingly opted to start on the Inters on a relatively dry track, endured a sluggish push off the line.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli darted into the lead, followed by his team-mate George Russell. Verstappen slotted into third, chased by Liam Lawson in fourth.
The Ferrari gamble to start on the Soft tyres miserably bit both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, as the duo plummeted down the order. The Monegasque dove into the pits on the very next lap, filtering out last after a slow stop.
It became pretty clear that the drivers on the Intermediates had made the right call as the dry tyre runners rounded off the back of the pack from P15 onwards.
As the race settled in, the Williams of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon were the biggest winners as they elevated themselves into the top 10 on their own sets of the green-walled Inters.
On Lap 6, Verstappen had found his bearings again, as he dove down the inside of Russell for P2 at Turn 4. Meanwhile, Antonelli had eked out a two-second advantage in the lead.
The crossover point for a switch to dry tyres was fast approaching. The Intermediate runners were finally dropping lap times to the dry runners.
That said, the time the likes of Norris and Hamilton had already lost to the lead pack meant the crossover advantage was just not worth it by Lap 8.
On the very next lap, Verstappen found himself right on the gearbox of Antonelli, with the Mercedes driver running wide at the Turn 15 hairpin. But the 20-year-old kept his wits on the main straight and through the Turn 1 and 2 complex to keep his W17 ahead of the Dutchman.
The Cadillac of Valtteri Bottas, however, changed the complexion of the race again when his stranded car in the gravel pit called out the Safety Car.
Antonelli and Verstappen dove into the pits, respectively, and came out 1-2. Almost everyone followed the leading duo into the pit lane, and essentially neutralised the race with the gaps wiped out and a 21-car field on dry tyres. Ferrari opted not to pit Hamilton under the Safety Car.
The Safety Car ended on Lap 13, with Antonelli leading the field, followed by Verstappen, Russell, Hadjar and Lawson.
The Red Bull driver swooped past Antonelli on the outside into Turn 1, and kept the nose of his RB22 ahead out of Turn 3 to take the lead of the race back from the Italian.
Antonelli lost another place to Russell and dropped into third as Verstappen, on the red-walled Softs, tried to get out of the Mercedes duo’s overtake zone.
Ferrari start to make amends at Sepang
By Lap 14, Hamilton had found himself climbing up the order and in 11th. Norris and Leclerc, on fresher tyres than the Briton, however, were finding it difficult to slice through the field in 13th and 14th, respectively.
Hamilton dispatched the Audi of Nico Hulkenberg to get himself into P9, almost 16 seconds off the leaders. Towards the front of the pack, Antonelli was starting to get frustrated in the wake of Russell as he tried to initiate a bit of team orders by coming onto his team radio: “I have more pace.”
Peter Bonnington responded with a reassuring “We’ll do something different,” suggesting the pit wall would deploy team orders on strategy.
On Lap 20, Hamilton was “back in the game” as he chased Esteban Ocon for sixth. He made his move on the Haas driver coming out of the Turn 15 hairpin.
Meanwhile, Antonelli wasn’t waiting around for the next round of pit stops.
On Lap 21, the current championship leader zipped past Russell and into second, but the ease with which he was able to pull the move suggested Russell was nursing his tyres, aiming to go long for an offset – short-term suffering for some long-term gain on Russell’s side of the pit wall.
Norris lost a place to Leclerc, as the Ferrari driver made a move on Hulkenberg to get himself into the points. The McLaren driver got himself past the Audi as well, but lost further ground to Leclerc in the process.
By Lap 24, Hamilton, who was yet to pit, was up and into fifth but almost 11 seconds off fourth-placed Isack Hadjar.
The weather forecast suggested another batch of rain was going to hit the track sometime before the end of the race, which could play out perfectly for Hamilton.
Midway through the Bahrain GP in Malaysia, Verstappen was in the lead by a solid eight seconds to Antonelli, followed by Russell, Hadjar and Hamilton.
Lawson, Piastri, Ocon, Leclerc and Norris rounded off the top 10.
Verstappen takes the win at Sepang as Antonelli maintains his championship edge
Leclerc came into the pits on Lap 29 for another set of the Soft tyres. The Ferrari driver came out in 13th, behind the Alpine of Franco Colapinto. Hamilton’s pace in clean air may be inspiring Leclerc’s side of the pit wall to switch up the Monegasque’s strategy.
By Lap 30, Hamilton had reduced his arrears to Hadjar to five seconds – the Red Bull driver was left perplexed by how much he was struggling with his tyres compared to the Briton.
On Lap 32, both Hadjar and Hamilton dove into the pits. The duo filtered out in fourth and fifth, respectively – the gap between them now down to two seconds.
At the front, Verstappen was now 10 seconds clear of Antonelli as Russell pitted from third. The Mercedes driver kept P3 intact, coming out ahead of the McLaren duo of Piastri and Norris by a comfortable margin. Antonelli pitted on the next lap, retaining second on exit. 20 laps now stood between Verstappen and his first win of 2026.
With the faster Soft tyres bolted onto his RB22, Hadjar was just about keeping Hamilton at bay. On Lap 38, the Ferrari driver, now lapping half a second faster than Hadjar, got himself right on the gearbox of the Red Bull driver.
Further down the grid, Fernando Alonso dragged his AMR26 up and into P10 as he got himself past Arvid Lindblad.
15 laps to go and Red Bull’s prowess on the straights was neutralising Ferrari’s dominance in the corners to keep Hadjar ahead of Hamilton.
Gearbox troubles forced Alex Albon to park his FW48, triggering the VSC on Lap 43. Verstappen took the opportunity to pit. The Mercedes duo stayed out, with Antonelli taking the race lead away from Verstappen.
The Dutchman came out in second, followed by Russell. Hamilton pitted from fifth as well, filtering out behind Piastri in sixth.
Mercedes changed their mind on the following lap as the German marque called both its drivers into the pits for a double-stack. Verstappen was now back into the lead as the full Safety Car was called out.
Russell pulled across towards the side of the pit exit on Lap 50 as his power unit gave out – keeping the Safety Car out for longer.
The Safety Car came into the pits at the end of Lap 51, as the top 5 went into Turn 4 line astern. Hamilton was now locked into battle with Hadjar for the final podium place.
Hamilton sailed past the battery-starved RB22 of Hadjar on the main straight on Lap 53. Out at the front, Verstappen extended his lead to 1.2 seconds over Antonelli. Leclerc got past Hadjar, too, on the next lap.
At the chequered flag, Verstappen took his 72nd career win – nine years on from his second-ever F1 win at Sepang in 2017.
Antonelli slotted into P2, extending his lead in the drivers’ standings to 84 points over Russell heading to Singapore.
Hamilton rounded off a brilliant recovery drive to take third on the road.
READ MORE – F1 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia – Race Results
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