Max Verstappen banked the Verstappen Bahrain GP win on Sunday, turning his first pole position of 2026 into victory in bizarre circumstances. The race marked the first grand prix held at Sepang in nine years, and it also delivered Verstappen’s and Red Bull’s first win of the season.
Antonelli finished second after leading for much of the opening stint, while Lewis Hamilton completed the podium in third, having recovered from near the back of the grid. Charles Leclerc, Isack Hadjar, Oscar Piastri, Liam Lawson, Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris and Arvid Lindblad rounded out the top ten.
If the relocation from Bahrain to Sepang is new to you, our beginner’s guide explains the basics of how a grand prix weekend works.
Detailed First Half Narrative
Qualifying had already been shaped by the wet. Verstappen claimed his first pole position of the year. He had to overcome a software glitch in practice beforehand, a scare covered in our piece on Verstappen’s software glitch, before putting it all together when it mattered.
That pole lap had its roots in a tyre decision taken back in Friday practice. We covered the thinking behind it in our report on the FP2 tyre call. It gave the team an early read on the car’s wet weather balance, and that read proved its worth come Sunday.
By race day the weather had worsened further. A tropical storm soaked the Sepang circuit and pushed the start back by an hour and 40 minutes. Conditions were still poor enough that several drivers ran into trouble on the formation lap itself, forcing officials to suspend the start again before a competitive lap had been run.
Ferrari rolled the dice once the race finally started, sending cars out on slick tyres despite standing water across the track. It backfired badly. Hamilton fell away early and found himself over a minute off the pack, a deficit he would spend the rest of the afternoon clawing back.
On a drying but still damp track, the thinking behind the gamble was not unreasonable, since the right tyre call in mixed conditions can be worth several seconds a lap. It simply didn’t come off this time, and Ferrari paid for it in the laps that followed.
Antonelli had matched Verstappen’s pace at the front and looked capable of fighting for the win in the opening laps. That changed on lap 13, when Verstappen found a way past the points leader and took control of the race for good. It proved to be the decisive move of the whole afternoon.
Detailed Second Half Narrative & Drama
The Verstappen Bahrain GP win was far from secure at the midway point, and the second half of the race proved just as turbulent as the first. Two safety cars and a virtual safety car interrupted the action, bunching the field back together each time. It meant the lead changes of the opening laps counted for less than they might have done in a dry, green flag race.
The decisive moment arrived when Alex Albon’s car came to a stop late on, triggering a stoppage that set up a sprint finish with just four laps left. It turned what had been a settled points paying order into a nervous dash to the flag. Every position mattered with the laps running out, and the restart itself carried real risk for anyone close behind.
Russell’s Mercedes then stopped just before the restart, and his failure promoted Hamilton straight to third place. The incident is covered in full in Russell’s Malaysian gift, and it capped a remarkable turnaround, since Hamilton had been more than a minute off the pace earlier in the race. It meant his long recovery from near the back of the grid was rewarded with a place on the podium rather than just outside it.
Leclerc took fourth, just ahead of Hadjar in fifth and Piastri in sixth. Lawson, Alonso and Norris filled seventh to ninth, with Norris recovering well after a late trip through the gravel threatened to end his afternoon. Lindblad claimed tenth and the final point on offer, a finishing order confirmed by the race report. It capped one of the most chaotic grands prix in years, and the fuller story of how it all came together is covered in our Bahrain GP win piece.
Player Ratings (home side)
Red Bull’s first win of the 2026 season rested on one driver’s afternoon in the sodden conditions at Sepang.
Verstappen (Red Bull): 9/10. Took pole in atrocious conditions, held the lead through the delayed start and two safety car periods, produced the decisive pass on Antonelli on lap 13, and controlled the restart to seal Red Bull’s first win of the season.
Player Ratings (opponent)
The rest of the grid had to deal with the same chaos, and some made far more of it than others.
Antonelli: 8/10. Matched Verstappen’s early pace before losing the lead on lap 13, then held on calmly for second, a result that stretches his championship lead over Russell to 84 points with seven races left.
Hamilton: 9/10. Fell over a minute behind the leaders after a difficult start in the wet and produced a storming recovery through the field. Once Russell’s car stopped, Hamilton climbed to third to cap one of his best drives of the year.
Leclerc: 5/10. Finished fourth, a solid if unspectacular return given how disrupted the whole afternoon became. He avoided the worst of the late safety car drama and brought the car home clean to bank a handful of points.
Hadjar: 7/10. Stayed out of trouble through two safety cars and a virtual safety car to come home fifth. It was a strong result from a race that punished anyone caught up in the chaos at the restarts.
Piastri: 6/10. Never quite found the pace to trouble the front runners in the wet and settled for sixth. He finished behind the podium places but held off the chasing pack after a messy restart sequence.
Lawson: 7/10. Kept his head through the long delay and two safety car restarts to bring the car home seventh. It was a tidy recovery given the chaos around him and a useful haul of points on a tough weekend.
Alonso: 7/10. Produced another composed, low risk drive in treacherous conditions, staying clear of the incidents around him. He finished eighth and collected a useful points haul in a race that punished mistakes all afternoon.
Norris: 6/10. Lost time with a late trip through the gravel that could have ended his afternoon entirely. He kept the car going and recovered to ninth by the chequered flag, salvaging a point from a difficult day.
Lindblad: 7/10. Held his nerve through a race littered with safety cars and late stoppages to claim tenth and the final point. It was a solid result on a weekend that offered little margin for error.
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