Max Verstappen wins Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia – in chaotic race that sees several cars glitch after rain-delayed start

Max Verstappen claimed his and Red Bull’s first victory of the F1 season in a chaotic Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

In a dominant drive, Verstappen finished ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.

However, that only tells a small part of the story in a race that began with an hour and a half race-start delay due to heavy rain and then unprecedented technical problems that saw several cars crawling in the formation laps.

Hamilton, who was in one of the cars with technical issues, chose to race on soft-compound slicks and immediately regretted the decision due to the track being too wet.

Within a few laps, the Brit was nearly a minute behind the leaders and down in 17th place but clawed his way back on to the podium after overtaking Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar with three laps to go. Hadjar would go on to finish fifth as Hamilton’s team-mate Charles Leclerc came fourth.

He couldn’t catch second-placed Antonelli though who has extended his lead at the top of the F1 world title race to 84 points after team-mate and nearest challenger George Russell retired from third place with a power unit failure with five laps to go.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri (sixth), Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson (seventh), Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso (eighth), McLaren’s Lando Norris (ninth) and Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad (tenth) rounded out the top 10.

What’s next?

The F1 season continues in Asia with the last leg of a three races in three weeks taking place in Singapore in what will be a night race.

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