2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia Race Review

Linus O'Howell

4 hours ago

4 min read

Verstappen Finally Wins on F1’s Return to Malaysia

In a Race that lasted almost 4 hours, it was Max Verstappen who ended up coming out victorious in the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia! Andrea Kimi Antonelli took a step closer to becoming World Champion with a positive P2, whilst Lewis Hamilton somehow found his way onto the Podium in a chaotic return to Sepang!

The Biggest Talking Points

Due to monsoon rain, the start of the Race had to be delayed, with the Grand Prix eventually getting underway 40 minutes later than expected! Or at least, that’s how it was supposed to go, but Formula 1 did take into consideration that these “new” cars have never been driven in the wet before! Unbelievably, they didn’t work, with multiple issues for both Ferrari and Red Bull Ford-Powertrained cars, to the point where the Race Start procedure had to be abandoned! This was an absolute farce, made worse by the fact that the FIA decided to revert the order to before those Formation Laps, despite the fact that cars that were then pushed into the correct position had done less laps than some of the others (i.e. Hamilton in comparison to Verstappen)! Eventually, when all of this mess was finally sorted out, there was a massive differential between drivers on slicks and drivers on intermediates! This allowed the two Mercedes’ to rocket out to the front, whilst the two Ferraris and the McLaren of Lando Norris completely fell to the back!

After Max Verstappen was able to clear George Russell for second, a Safety Car was called after Valtteri Bottas spun out into the gravel! This sort of saved all of the drivers who started on dry tyres, whilst all of the inter runners were able to pit for slicks! When the Race got back underway, Verstappen was able to take the lead off Kimi Antonelli, whilst Antonelli would also lose second to teammate Russell! Gabriel Bortoleto would ruin Carlos Sainz’s afternoon by wiping him out at Turn 2, whilst Kimi would quickly re-overtake George for P2! At this point in the Race, the action was coming from Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, and Lando Norris making their way back through the field, which Hamilton was doing particularly successfully! As the Race went along, the top teams found themselves back into the Top 8 positions, leaving the fight for the final point (behind Liam Lawson) between Arvid Lindblad, Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon, and Lance Stroll! At the time, Alonso was winning that battle for P10, but this was before an issue for Alex Albon originally brought out a Virtual Safety Car!

However, everything took so long with clearing Albon’s car that we got a full Safety Car, which also took far too long, as it took forever for all of the lapped cars to get back onto the pack! This was incredibly frustrating, especially given the fact that Formula 1 showed earlier in the day that they didn’t care about who’d done more laps/carried more fuel! Things then got delayed even further as George Russell’s Mercedes conked out from third place, all but firmly finishing off Russell’s slim Championship chances! Lando Norris would also make a mistake behind teammate Oscar Piastri; running into the gravel at Turn 1, and he could ultimately only get back to P9, whilst Lewis Hamilton was able to dispatch Isack Hadjar for the final spot on the Podium! Honestly, so much happened in this Race that it’s almost impossible to cover it, with Arvid Lindblad passing Nico Hulkenberg late on to take P10, as Max Verstappen pulled away from Kimi Antonelli!

The Standout Drives in the Race

I’ve given out three 10’s for the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, and the first one is obviously for Max Verstappen! If you give him a car capable of winning, Max will win! It’s as simple(y lovely) as that! The second driver I’ve given out maximum points to is Liam Lawson, who has already gone back to being the best of the rest, just two weekends back in a VCARB! P7 is fantastic! And the final driver I’ve given a Perfect 10 to is Fernando Alonso, who would’ve gotten a 10 had he finished 10th, let alone P8! 4 points is easily Fernando’s and Aston Martin’s best result of the year, so fair play to them! Elsewhere, it feels like Andrea Kimi Antonelli fully locked up the Drivers’ Championship this weekend, whilst Lewis Hamilton did a great job to recover from the back to finish on the Podium! Arvid Lindblad also deserves a shoutout for scoring a point, despite starting last, whilst Lance Stroll recorded his best result of the season (P12)!

Drivers Who Had a Shocker

I’ve given out two 1’s for today’s Race, and the first one is unfortunately for Gabriel Bortoleto! Gabby was having a good weekend up until the first Safety Car, where he wiped out Carlos Sainz and subsequently ruined both of their afternoons! Bortoleto rightly received a penalty for this, and a P18 finish is pretty terrible! The other driver I’ve given the lowest possible grade to is Valtteri Bottas, as he crashed on his own! Fairly straightforward grade! Elsewhere, McLaren as a team were pretty disappointing again, with Lando Norris only finishing 9th, whilst Williams and Esteban Ocon completely fell off after looking in an incredibly strong position early on! It was also a pretty poor day for Pierre Gasly, who made a mistake whilst running in the points, whilst we have to mention the fact that George Russell suffered another mechanical failure! Talk about a guy who has zero luck!