Formula 1 came back to Sepang after nine years and found it much as it left it: hot, wet and unpredictable. What nobody expected was a software problem. By the time the field was finally racing, the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia had already been through a thunderstorm, a red flag and an emergency software update. Max Verstappen was the only man who seemed untroubled by any of it.
The Dutchman had been quickest in all three parts of qualifying. His 1:35.130 put him three tenths clear of Lewis Hamilton. It was his first pole of the season and the first for the Red Bull-Ford partnership, and Ford’s first pole since Rubens Barrichello’s Stewart at Magny-Cours in 1999. Isack Hadjar qualified third but took a five-place engine penalty, which promoted Kimi Antonelli to third on the grid. Mercedes had brought an upgrade to Malaysia and looked baffled by it. George Russell qualified eighth and started seventh.
A storm arrived just before the scheduled start, and the start was delayed by 40 minutes. When the field finally left on the formation lap on intermediates, the queue bunched up and several cars nearly stopped. A number of them, Verstappen and Hamilton among them, then would not go again. The drivers had their feet on the throttle and nothing happened. The red flag came out.
The explanation is simpler than it sounded on the radio. Nearly half of a 2026 car’s power is electrical, and the way that power is deployed is governed by standard software the FIA supplies. That software had a flaw nobody had found, because this season has produced almost no proper wet running to test it. When a car slowed to a near standstill, the bug stopped the electrical power from being released again. FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis admitted the software had not been tested as thoroughly as he would have liked. His engineers wrote a fix on the spot, sent it to the teams, and the teams loaded it onto every car. The fix itself took about 20 minutes. Getting the race restarted took 53. Sergio Pérez compared the experience to a rental kart running out of time. Fernando Alonso, whose Aston Martin has failed to finish half its races this season, joked that nobody had ever stopped a race on his account.
When they finally got underway, only nine cars started on intermediates, among them Verstappen, both Mercedes and Hadjar. The Ferraris, the McLarens and most of the midfield gambled on slicks. Piastri, Stroll, Hülkenberg and Bortoleto lost their nerve and pitted for intermediates before the standing start. The Mercedes pair got away better than Verstappen, and Liam Lawson flew into fourth. The slick runners lost time by the lap, and Leclerc, having clipped Hülkenberg, gave up and pitted at the end of the first lap.
Verstappen passed Russell on lap six and was all over Antonelli when Valtteri Bottas beached his Cadillac in the Turn 13 gravel. The safety car came out just as slicks had become the faster tyre. The leaders got a cheap change onto slicks and the gamblers got a reprieve. On the restart Verstappen went around the outside of Antonelli at Turn 1, and Russell took his teammate at Turn 5. Antonelli eventually repassed Russell on lap 21 without any help from the pit wall, and Verstappen’s lead had grown to 11 seconds by the second round of stops. Alex Albon’s stopped Williams brought out a virtual safety car and then a full one. Verstappen pitted, briefly lost the lead and took it back a lap later when Antonelli stopped. With four laps left he controlled the restart and won by 2.3 seconds. It was Ford’s first Grand Prix victory since 2003.
Ferrari needed a good afternoon and got one. Hamilton went from the front row to 15th on the slick gamble, worked his way back to fifth by lap 22 and passed Hadjar into Turn 1 three laps from home for his first podium since Silverstone. Leclerc came from the pit lane on lap one to finish fourth. After a week in which the Italian press was openly writing Fred Vasseur’s successor’s name, a 27-point haul will not settle the question, but it gives his critics less to work with.
Russell had the worst of it. He was running third on lap 50 when his power unit failed, his third retirement of the year. Toto Wolff said the failure had nothing to do with the safety car and apologised on the radio. Antonelli now leads by 84 points with seven Grands Prix and a sprint remaining. The arithmetic still allows a comeback. Russell needs to outscore Antonelli by around twelve points every weekend from here, and he himself called a fightback exceptionally unlikely. The Italian has eight wins and a teammate with an unreliable car. Short of something dramatic, the title is his.
Further back, Lawson’s seventh and Arvid Lindblad’s tenth put Racing Bulls 22 points clear of Alpine, who failed to score. Esteban Ocon ran sixth early and finished fifteenth. Red Bull closed to within 18 points of McLaren. Alonso’s eighth place is Aston Martin’s best result of the season and moves them to within five points of Williams. Lance Stroll finished twelfth, which at Aston Martin this year counts as news.
Honourable mentions go to Lawson for the start of the day, Hadjar for climbing from eighth on the grid to fifth, Norris for recovering to ninth after a trip through the gravel, and Pérez, who reached the flag after seven pit stops.
Singapore follows next Sunday. Mercedes have a week to find the speed they lost here, Red Bull arrive with momentum for the first time this season, and Vasseur will face the same questions again.
Media courtesy Pirelli Motorsport