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

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.

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

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

A week after a dominant victory in Baku appeared to offer him a glimmer of hope in the championship race, 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 live on Sky Sports F1 from this Friday.

Although he lost the lead to the Mercedes drivers 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 day's second Safety Car was deployed with nine laps left after Alex Albon's stranded Williams took time to recover.

But Verstappen, who had been dominant all weekend, made no mistakes when racing resumed and claimed his first 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 felt he could have challenged Verstappen for the win had Ferrari not made the decision to start on slick tyres on a drying but still-too-wet track.

That decision quickly proved flawed as Hamilton and Leclerc plummeted towards the back of the field and more than one minute off the lead behind those who had played it safer with by choosing the intermediates.

But a timely first Safety Car on lap nine 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 rather than cutting their loses by pitting for intermediates - as team-mate Leclerc had done - Hamilton 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 Leclerc also soon passing the Frenchman to take fourth following his own recovery drive after his additional early stop.

Oscar Piastri finished sixth for McLaren, who had also gambled by fitting dry tyres to their cars for the start.

Lando Norris had been running close behind his team-mate in seventh but, just moments after Russell had pulled up to retire on inside of the pit straight under the Safety Car, misjudged his braking and slithered through the gravel at Turn One, dropping 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.

How a remarkable race day unfolded on dramatic Sepang return

Tropical conditions are an ever-present threat in Malaysia, and after staying away for most of the race weekend, the rain finally arrived with a vengeance on Sunday - just as drivers prepared to head to the dummy grid, 40 minutes before the formation lap.

While the downpour was initially restricted to the pit-straight area of the track, the rain widened and worsened and, with strikes of thunder and lightning overhead adding to the increasingly gloomy scene, Race Control soon announced that the 8am BST scheduled start was to be delayed.

A 40-minute wait followed and, with conditions now steadily improving, cars were released back to the track from the pit lane for at least two exploratory formation laps behind the Safety Car with a view to starting the race.

But then the situation took an increasingly surreal turn, forcing another delay.

Halfway through the first controlled-speed lap behind the Safety Car, polesitter Verstappen reported that his Red Bull was struggling for power over the team radio.

Then second-placed Hamilton suffered more fundamental throttle problems in his Ferrari, sending him tumbling down the order as other cars moved past.

As the issues continued to spread, the field began to bunch up and split apart, with drivers battling software glitches in their highly complex 2026 power units. Hamilton eventually came to a halt on the backstraight before managing to get going again, while Ferrari-powered Haas and Cadillac cars also stopped briefly.

With all of this unfolding as the remaining runners approached the end of their second Safety Car lap, Race Control had little choice but to suspend the start procedure. Cars were sent back to the pit lane in a bizarre order, with stranded and struggling machinery adding to the chaos.

An even longer delay followed as the cars were painstakingly restored to their original grid positions and teams worked through a series of engine software tweaks issued by the FIA after what the governing body later said was an "unprecedented" glitch.

Meanwhile, the rain had finally stopped, and the track was drying rapidly - but the big question remained: was it dry enough for slick tyres?

When a new race start time was confirmed, 13 of the 22 drivers - including both Ferraris and McLarens - gambled on slicks, while the rest, including Verstappen and both Mercedes, opted to stay on intermediates.

It was a gamble that quickly began to unravel. During the lap to the grid, the track proved too slippery for slicks, with Piastri and both Audis among the first to dive back into the pits for intermediates.

Then came the dramatic start. Verstappen, despite making the right tyre call, was immediately jumped by both Mercedes, with Kimi Antonelli leading George Russell into Turn One.

But Verstappen still appeared quickest in the conditions and, having already passed Russell on lap six, the Red Bull driver was back at the front swiftly after the first Safety Car intervention - called on lap nine when Valtteri Bottas spun off in the Cadillac - when he overtook Antonelli through the first sequence of corners.

Russell followed through to take second away from Antonelli into turn four, but the Italian was back ahead of his team-mate and title rival by lap 21, by which time Verstappen was four seconds up the road.

That gap only widened thereafter until the late Safety Car bunched the field for the closing laps, but there was still no stopping Verstappen.

"It's a really nice one [win] after the year we've had and the progression we have made," said Verstappen.

"I'm incredibly proud of everyone. Just super nice to win here.

"It's incredible. To win our first race in our first year with our own power unit is pretty impressive."

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