Chaos at Malaysia: Lewis Hamilton Produces Stunning Comeback After Crazy Bahrain GP… See Details 

Chaos at Malaysia: Lewis Hamilton Produces Stunning Comeback After Crazy Bahrain GP… See Details

One of the most bizarre grands prix in recent years unfolded in Sepang on Sunday, ending with Max Verstappen taking his first victory of the 2026 season and George Russell retiring from third under a late safety car.

The four-time world champion recovered well from losing the lead to Kimi Antonelli and Russell off the start, overcoming the Mercedes pair either side of an early safety car before simply driving away into the Sepang heat.

That was the most normal thing that happened all day.

Drivers weren’t even safe in their positions under safety car conditions, with Russell’s Mercedes power unit conking out on the home straight with five laps remaining – while Lando Norris, on the same straight, flew off into the gravel to lose half a dozen places after locking up.

Again, that was under a safety car.

Bahrain Grand Prix delayed by rain storm

The race got underway an hour and a half later than planned thanks to a massive rain storm just before the advertised start time, with an attempted restart just halfway through the delay thwarted by engine software issues, leading to cars stopped on track rebooting their software.

When the race eventually got underway, the field was split between slick and intermediate tyres after the extended delay allowed the track to dry significantly.

As it turned out, there was very much a right answer and a wrong answer – with the intermediate tyre runners pulling out some 20 seconds a lap in the early going.

Among those tumbling down the field were Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, with the latter taking the chance to abandon his slick tyres when he was forced to pit for a broken front wing sustained in an incident with Gabriel Bortoleto.

The intermediate runners were able to hang onto their tyres much longer than expected as the track retained a surprising amount of water, with a Lap 9 safety car (for Valtteri Bottas spinning out) timed perfectly for pitstops right at the crossover point.

A virtual safety car with a dozen laps to go gave some of the major players a chance to pit for fresh rubber for a final dash to the chequered flag – but that turned into a full safety car after two laps, with Alex Albon’s stricken car proving trickier to remove than expected.

That bunched the field right up for a frenetic four-lap dash to the flag, with Hamilton climbing all over the back of Isack Hadjar before passing him for the final podium place with three laps to go.

That’s right – after all that, the three podium drivers were the front three on the grid.

Further back in the pack, Fernando Alonso held off Norris (!) in the closing laps to claim eighth place, Aston Martin’s best result of the season.

2026 F1 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia Results

2026 Bahrain Grand Prix results

Pos	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	Winner
2	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	+2.307s
3	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+4.919s
4	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+7.258s
5	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull	+8.571s
6	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+9.454s
7	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	+12.753s
8	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+13.372s
9	Lando Norris	McLaren	+13.993s
10	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	+15.928s
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	+17.404s
12	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+18.052s
13	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+18.997s
14	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+22.305s
15	Esteban Ocon	Haas	+22.532s
16	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+23.315s
17	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+25.431s
18	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	+28.233s
19	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	+29.310s
20	George Russell	Mercedes	DNF
NC	Alex Albon	Williams	DNF
NC	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	DNF