Verstappen wins Bahrain GP at Sepang as Russell retires

Photo: Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

Max Verstappen won the Bahrain Grand Prix, held at Sepang in Malaysia, and beat both Mercedes drivers. The four-time world champion started from pole position. A downpour and a red flag delayed the start, and the safety car came out several times during the race. The result gave Red Bull its first win of the 2026 season. George Russell lost a near-certain podium when his power unit failed before the final restart.

Result: Verstappen ahead of Antonelli and Hamilton

Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton joined Verstappen on the podium. Charles Leclerc finished fourth, Isack Hadjar fifth and Oscar Piastri sixth. Liam Lawson, Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris also scored, while Lindblad took the final point in 10th place.

It was Verstappen's 72nd career win and the first victory for Red Bull's in-house power unit project. The win also spared the team its first season without a victory since 2015.

A delay of more than 90 minutes and a start on intermediates

The race got underway more than an hour and a half late. Heavy rain first held up the start by 40 minutes. On the formation lap, Hadjar went into the gravel, and a software fault left several cars without throttle, including those of front-row starters Verstappen and Hamilton. The red flag that followed extended the delay by another 53 minutes.

The race began behind the safety car. Only nine drivers started on intermediate tires, among them Verstappen, Antonelli, Russell and Hadjar. Hamilton, Leclerc, Norris, Piastri and Pierre Gasly chose slicks. Gasly spun behind the safety car on lap 1 and dropped to 13th. The standing start came at the end of lap 2. Just before it, Piastri, Gabriel Bortoleto, Lance Stroll and Nico Hülkenberg pitted to switch from slicks to intermediates.

When the lights went out, Antonelli and Russell took the top two places. Russell climbed from seventh on the grid to second before the first corner. Verstappen only just held third ahead of Lawson. Leclerc clipped Hülkenberg's Audi and pitted for a new front wing. Hamilton, both Alpines, Oliver Bearman, Alonso and Valtteri Bottas lost tens of seconds on slicks.

On lap 6, Verstappen passed Russell at Turn 4. The top three were then covered by three seconds, with fourth-placed Lawson 10 seconds back. On the same lap, Hadjar overtook Lawson at the final corner. By lap 8, Verstappen was pressuring Antonelli, who ran wide at the last corner but kept the lead.

Safety car restart and the Mercedes fight

On lap 9, Bottas lost control at Turn 13 and got stuck in the gravel. The safety car allowed drivers on intermediates to switch to slicks, which were by then the faster tire. Mercedes chose the medium tires, Red Bull and Ferrari the softs, and Norris the hards. Hamilton, Norris and Leclerc were running 15th to 17th at that point.

At the restart, Verstappen went around the outside of Antonelli at Turn 1. Russell passed Antonelli at Turn 5, dropping the championship leader to third. At the same time, Bortoleto collided with Carlos Sainz. Williams driver Sainz fell to 18th, and Audi's Bortoleto received a 10-second penalty.

Verstappen pulled more than three seconds clear of the Mercedes pair. Mercedes did not issue team orders, and on lap 21 Antonelli retook second on his own, passing Russell at Turn 4. Hamilton was working his way through the field and was fifth by lap 22. A lap later, Leclerc moved into the top 10.

On lap 24, Antonelli ran wide at the final corner and hit a bollard at the pit entry. His gap to Verstappen grew to 7.5 seconds, and he was just one second ahead of Russell.

Russell's failure before the final restart

The leaders began their second round of pit stops on lap 29. Russell made his second stop on lap 32 and fitted soft tires, too early in his own view. Antonelli pitted on lap 33 so that Russell could not get ahead of him by stopping first. Verstappen also pitted and led by 11 seconds after that round of stops.

When Alex Albon stopped with a technical failure, the race was neutralized under a virtual safety car (VSC). Verstappen used it for a cheap pit stop and briefly handed the lead to Antonelli. Both Ferraris also changed tires then. Mercedes brought both cars in a lap later. The VSC then became a full safety car.

Verstappen, Antonelli, Russell, Hadjar and Hamilton led the order heading into the closing laps. Before the race resumed, Russell pulled over beside the track with a power unit failure. Norris went into the gravel and dropped to 11th.

The safety car came in with four laps to go. Verstappen won the restart, and Antonelli could not challenge him before the finish. On lap 53, Hamilton passed Hadjar at Turn 1 to take his first podium since Silverstone. Hadjar also fell behind Leclerc. Alonso held on to eighth ahead of Norris. Esteban Ocon, who had been sixth early on, finished only 15th, behind teammate Bearman.

Russell and Wolff react

"I mean, you've almost got to laugh," Russell told Sky Sports F1. It was his third retirement of the season and the second caused purely by a technical problem. "It's beyond disappointment. It's just, so many times this season it's happened," he said. "The podium, of course, looked very certain. Solid race, not amazing race, but solid race." He added: "Not the first time, so I'm pretty used to this feeling and these questions, let's say."

Russell also calculated the cost of the failure. "I knew if I wanted to come back I needed luck on my side. Unfortunately, I've had luck not on my side. So, you know, a three-point loss today being behind Kimi turned into an 18-point loss," he said. He did not declare his title challenge over, but acknowledged: "But, of course, it's exceptionally unlikely, and that's just the reality."

Toto Wolff called the race one of his worst experiences. "I'm so massively annoyed," the Mercedes team principal said, adding that he was not in a good mood. According to Wolff, the team lacked the speed it had expected that weekend and has a lot of work ahead. "We had such an advantage, one VSC, two safety cars. I mean, you couldn't be more unlucky," he said. In his view, the failure was terrible for Russell's championship chances and bad for the team's constructors' championship points. "It's just this overarching topic, the DNFs, that could cost us dearly also for the remaining seven races," Wolff added. He said technical director James Allison and his leadership team are working on the problem.

Standings after 16 of 23 races

Antonelli leads the drivers' championship by 84 points from Russell, with 183 points still available. Hamilton's deficit to the leader has grown to 106 points.

In the constructors' championship, Ferrari trails Mercedes by 151 points. At Sepang, Mercedes scored fewer points than Ferrari for the first time since the summer break. There are 316 constructors' points still to be awarded.