Bahrain GP in Malaysia: Max Verstappen wins first race of 2026 F1 season in wild, rain-hit Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton surges back

Max Verstappen overcame a truly chaotic, twice-delayed, rain-affected race to claim his first win of the 2026 season at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, while Kimi Antonelli strengthened his title bid with second place as George Russell retired late on.

Formula 1's return to Sepang after a nine-year absence produced the most remarkable race day of the season, with heavy rain before the start finally delivering the campaign's first wet-weather action at its 16th round.

The start time was twice pushed back by delays before the 55 laps were twice disrupted by Safety Cars. Verstappen beat Antonelli to victory, while Lewis Hamilton stunningly fought back from dropping to 18th after a Ferrari tyre-strategy gamble backfired to claim third place.

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"That is one of the craziest Formula 1 races I have ever seen," said a disbelieving Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle after the chequered flag fell almost three and a half hours after the scheduled race-start time.

"That was absolutely wild."

Russell was running third behind Mercedes team-mate Antonelli but was forced to retire with five laps to go under the race's second Safety Car with a suspected power-unit problem on his car.

A week after a dominant victory in Baku appeared to offer him a glimmer of hope, Russell's deficit to Antonelli has widened to a season-high 84 points with only seven rounds remaining.

The Singapore Grand Prix - featuring the season's final Sprint - immediately follows this coming week, live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday.

Although he lost the lead from pole when the race eventually got under way, Verstappen fought back to reclaim first place and had built a lead of more than 10 seconds over Antonelli before the second Safety Car was deployed with five laps left after Alex Albon's Williams had stopped off track and took time to move.

But Verstappen, who had been dominant all weekend, made no mistakes over the final lap and claimed his first race win since last year's season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the 72nd victory of his career.

Hamilton had started alongside his old title rival on the front row and could have challenged Verstappen for the win had he not dropped more than a minute off the lead in the early laps after Ferrari were among the teams to fit slick tyres for the delayed start when the track was still too slippery.

But a timely first Safety Car closed the pack back up and, having crucially told the Ferrari pit wall to wait for conditions to come back towards them on the drying track and not cut their loses by pitting for intermediates, Hamilton then showed consistently blistering pace to work his way back up the order.

Hamilton overtook Red Bull's Isack Hadjar after the late restart to secure third and end Ferrari's five-race podium drought, with team-mate Charles Leclerc also passing the Frenchman to take fourth.

Oscar Piastri finished sixth for McLaren after their own topsy-turvy race, which had also seen the Woking team fit slicks for the start. Lando Norris had been running close behind in seventh but, seemingly distracted by Russell stopping on the inside of the pit straight under the Safety Car, slithered through the gravel at Turn One and dropped to ninth.

Liam Lawson drove strongly to seventh for Racing Bulls, backed up by team-mate Arvid Lindblad in 10th, while Fernando Alonso claimed a season-best eighth for Aston Martin to cap their best weekend of a troubled season so far.

More to follow...

Formula 1 heads straight to Singapore for the last Sprint weekend of the season with track action starting this Friday, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime

(c) Sky Sports 2026: Bahrain GP in Malaysia: Max Verstappen wins first race of 2026 F1 season in wild, rain-hit Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton surges back