Verstappen wins at Sepang after a red flag, a tyre gamble and heartbreak for Russell
Antonelli finishes second and stretches his title lead to 84 points, Hamilton recovers to third after Ferrari's slick gamble, and Russell retires with an engine problem
Max Verstappen has won the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia after a day at Sepang that began with a red flag before the race had even started. The Red Bull driver converted pole into victory ahead of Kimi Antonelli, with Lewis Hamilton recovering to third after Ferrari sent him out on the wrong tyres. George Russell, running third, retired with an engine problem with a handful of laps to go. It is Verstappen’s first win of the season, and the first for Red Bull since it started building its own power unit.
Charles Leclerc finished fourth, ahead of Isack Hadjar, Oscar Piastri, Liam Lawson, Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris. Arvid Lindblad took the last point in tenth after starting from the back of the grid.
A red flag before the start
Heavy rain delayed the start, which was due at 15:00 local time. The FIA set a formation lap for 15:40 and sent the field out for warm-up laps first, and that is where it went wrong. Isack Hadjar went through the gravel but rejoined, and then car after car came to a halt on the wet track while Verstappen kept going. The race was red-flagged and all cars returned to the pit lane. What made so many cars stop has not yet been explained. Read the full story in our red flag report.
The race finally got under way with a standing start at 16:33 local time, 10:33 in the Netherlands, from the original grid.
Slicks were the wrong gamble
The tyre choice decided the opening laps. Verstappen started on intermediates, but a large part of the field gambled on slicks. Several drivers headed straight for the pit lane to switch to intermediates, and those who stayed out on slicks, among them Lando Norris, Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, dropped to the back of the field.
Verstappen made a poor getaway, and the two Mercedes cars made the most of it. Antonelli took the lead from third on the grid and Russell, who started seventh, was second, with Verstappen third. The Red Bull driver worked his way back to the front and was leading when the Safety Car came out in the closing stages for Alexander Albon, whose Williams had stopped beside the track.
Russell’s engine gives up
Behind the Safety Car the order was Verstappen, Antonelli and Russell. On lap 50, just as the Safety Car was about to come in, Russell’s Mercedes stopped at the end of the straight. According to his team it was a problem with the combustion engine. Norris also went off behind the Safety Car after misjudging his braking on the straight, but continued and finished ninth.
Verstappen nailed the restart on lap 51 and pulled a second clear of Antonelli straight away. Further back Liam Lawson passed Oscar Piastri after a hard fight, and in the closing laps Hamilton, who had climbed through the field after his tyre change, used overtake mode to pass Hadjar for third.
What it means for the title
Antonelli leaves Malaysia with a bigger lead. He was 66 points clear of Russell before the race, and with 18 points for second against nothing for his team-mate, the gap grows to 84 points by our count. Hamilton moves up to 214 points, 106 behind. Seven Grands Prix and one sprint are left, worth 183 points, which means Oscar Piastri can no longer win the title. If everything goes Antonelli’s way, he could clinch it at the United States Grand Prix at the earliest.
The result
Top 10 of the official classification over 55 laps. Gaps are to the winner. Source: formula1.com. The full result is on our results page.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Grid | Gap | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | 1 | 1:47:14.808 | 25 |
| 2 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 3 | +2.307s | 18 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 2 | +4.919s | 15 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 4 | +7.258s | 12 |
| 5 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull Racing | 8 | +8.571s | 10 |
| 6 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 6 | +9.454s | 8 |
| 7 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | 11 | +12.753s | 6 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 12 | +13.372s | 4 |
| 9 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 5 | +13.993s | 2 |
| 10 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | 22 | +15.928s | 1 |
George Russell was classified 20th after stopping on lap 50. Alexander Albon and Valtteri Bottas were not classified.
Our surprise
It took until round 16, but Red Bull has won a race with its own engine. 2026 is the first season in which the team races a power unit of its own, built by Red Bull Ford Powertrains, and Sepang delivered the first win of the year for both Verstappen and Red Bull. It came on the strangest of days: a red flag before the start, a poor getaway and a field split between slicks and intermediates. Red Bull called the conditions right, Ferrari did not, and Mercedes lost a likely double podium to an engine failure. The surprise is how long it took and how it finally came: after fifteen rounds without a win, Red Bull’s own power unit delivered on a day when getting the tyres right mattered more than raw speed.
Is this the start of a Red Bull comeback with its own engine, or a one-off thanks to the rain? Tell us in the comments.
What comes next
Read how Verstappen took pole in our qualifying report, why the dry strategies never mattered in our Pirelli tyre strategy preview, and see the full classification on our Bahrain Grand Prix 2026 results page. Who can still win the title is in our championship permutations.
