the 2026 bahrain grand prix (in malaysia): the dutch lion finally wins one
verstappen wins his first race of 2026 at a soaked sepang, russell's mercedes dies behind the safety car and alonso scores four points.
the bahrain grand prix happened on sunday, in malaysia. bahrain’s april race was called off because of the war in iran, sepang took it over in july, and bahrain kept the name. it was F1’s first race at sepang since 2017, which max verstappen won. guess how this one ended.
verstappen took pole by 0.298 seconds from lewis hamilton, his first pole of the year. isack hadjar was third but had a five-place engine penalty, so kimi antonelli started third. and both aston martins made Q2 for the first time all season. remember that.
then a thunderstorm hit just before the start and the race was delayed by 40 minutes. when the cars went out behind the safety car, several of them lost power. “i’m pressing the throttle and nothing’s happening,” hamilton said, and then his ferrari stopped. red flag. the FIA blamed an “unprecedented combination” of low revs, low grip and wet-weather energy settings, and sent every team a software fix. the 2026 engines are so clever that a wet formation lap switched them off.
the race started 93 minutes late and one lap shorter, on a drying track. 13 of the 22 drivers gambled on slicks, including both ferraris and both mclarens. it was too early. verstappen and the two mercedes stayed on intermediates, and hamilton fell to 18th, more than a minute behind.
antonelli and george russell both jumped verstappen at the start. the dutch lion had russell back by lap 6. then valtteri bottas spun off, the safety car came out, the leaders switched to slicks, and at the restart verstappen went around the outside of antonelli at turn 1. he was over ten seconds clear when alex albon’s williams stopped on lap 43 and brought the safety car out again.
that’s when the gods remembered george. he was running third, a week after winning in baku, when his mercedes died behind the safety car. after canada he said the gods didn’t want him in this fight. i’m starting to think he had a point.
verstappen held on for the last four laps and won by 2.3 seconds. it’s his first win of 2026, the 72nd of his career, and the first for the engine red bull builds with ford. he called it “super nice to win here”. it took sixteen rounds, max. but yes.
hamilton deserves his own paragraph. ferrari suggested pitting for intermediates and he said no, kept his starting softs past half distance, and passed hadjar for third with three laps left. charles leclerc took fourth off hadjar a lap later. lando norris nearly hit oscar piastri behind the safety car, went through the gravel, finished ninth and got a reprimand.
and my GOAT? fernando alonso finished eighth from 12th on the grid, his best result of the year. that’s four points in one afternoon, when aston martin had three from the first fifteen races. i said i was choosing hope.
the championship: antonelli 320, russell 236, hamilton 214, leclerc 191, norris and verstappen 188. that’s an 84-point lead with seven races left. is it over? the maths says no. everything else says yes.
singapore is next sunday, october 11, with the last sprint of the year. my prediction: verstappen makes it two in a row, and alonso scores again. see you there.