Max Verstappen ended his wait for a 2026 Formula 1 victory by winning a chaotic and rain-hit Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang on Sunday, beating championship leader Kimi Antonelli while Lewis Hamilton completed the podium.
Verstappen held off Antonelli by 1.4 seconds at the start of the final lap to claim Red Bull’s first win of the season and his first victory since winning at Sepang in 2017.
Antonelli finished second for Mercedes, while Hamilton recovered from 18th on the grid to take third for Ferrari after a difficult start on the wrong tyres.
The race was delayed by heavy rain before the start and eventually got underway more than three hours after its scheduled start following further delays caused by technical problems during the wet formation laps.
Verstappen said the race had been “very hectic” but credited Red Bull for making the right call on intermediate tyres before gradually moving through the field.
“It’s a really nice one [win] after the year we’ve had and the progression we have made,” he said.
“I’m incredibly proud of everyone. Just super nice to win here.”
The victory was also the first for Red Bull’s own Ford power unit, adding another milestone to the team’s first season running the new engine.
Antonelli said second was the best Mercedes could have achieved after struggling for pace through much of the weekend.
“Today was the maximum we could have done. Massive congrats to Max and Red Bull for the incredible weekend,” he said.
The result strengthened Antonelli’s grip on the Drivers’ Championship, with his lead over Mercedes team-mate George Russell increasing to 84 points.
Russell had been running third before a late Mercedes engine failure dropped him out of the podium places, dealing another blow to his title hopes.
Hamilton’s recovery was one of the standout drives of the race after he started 18th. The Ferrari driver said an early tyre strategy error left him a minute behind the leaders at one point.
“Obviously we had the wrong call at the beginning, which was so difficult. I could see everyone pulling away and I could see on the screen that I was a minute down, and I thought that was kind of race over for us,” Hamilton said.
“But I just kept my head down. The guys did a great job with the pit stops.”
Charles Leclerc finished fourth ahead of Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, Oscar Piastri in sixth and Liam Lawson in seventh.
Fernando Alonso finished eighth after holding off Lando Norris, with Norris ninth and Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad completing the top 10.
The result also gave Verstappen another piece of Sepang history. Having won the previous Malaysian Grand Prix in 2017, he became the first driver to win at the circuit across the longest gap between consecutive victories at the same track.
