Max Verstappen won the chaotic Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, securing his first victory of the 2026 season and showcasing dominance throughout qualifying and the race despite an initial poor start. Lewis Hamilton recovered from starting in 18th place due to Ferrari's tire strategy blunder to claim third by the end of the race. Kimi Antonelli extended his championship lead to 84 points with a second-place finish, while George Russell retired early due to a power unit failure when he was in third position.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-04,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
- Published
Max Verstappen secured his first win of the 2026 season with victory at a chaotic Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
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Verstappen → publish → Malaysia
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton had an eventful race and finished third, while Kimi Antonelli extended his championship lead to 84 points over Mercedes team-mate George Russell with his second place at Sepang.
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Antonelli → have → Sepang
Russell retired from the grand prix while in third place with a power unit failure.
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Russell → retire → failure
Here are my ratings for how the drivers performed across the whole weekend in Malaysia...
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drivers → perform → Malaysia
Kimi Antonelli - 9/10
Proving Baku was just a blip for the championship leader.
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Baku → prove → leader
Produced an excellent start to take the lead and ultimately brought home second on a weekend where Mercedes never looked entirely comfortable.
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Mercedes → produce → weekend
Lewis Hamilton - 9.5/10
A superb recovery after Ferrari's decision to start on slick tyres sent him tumbling from the front row to 18th.
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recovery → start → 18th
Hamilton fought all the way back to the podium and passed Isack Hadjar after the final safety car to complete one of his best drives of the season.
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Hamilton → fight → season
Recovered impressively through the field to fourth and ensured Ferrari salvaged a huge result from a strategy that initially looked disastrous.
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that → recover → strategy
Isack Hadjar - 8.5/10
Third fastest in qualifying was an excellent performance before his engine penalty dropped him to eighth on the grid.
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penalty → drop → grid
A great battle with Hamilton even if he did lose out with Leclerc denying him fourth at the end too.
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Leclerc → lose → end
Oscar Piastri - 7.5/10
Never quite had McLaren at the sharp end but made the right early call to abandon the slicks and start from the pit lane on intermediate tyres.
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Piastri → make → tyres
Recovered to sixth and comfortably beat Norris on a day when simply keeping everything clean counted for plenty.
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keeping → recover → plenty
Fernando Alonso - 8/10
Aston Martin finally showed some signs of life and Alonso made sure to capitalise.
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Alonso → show → life
Lando Norris - 5.5/10
A frustrating weekend that ended with an avoidable mistake.
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that → end → mistake
really impressive recovery considering he started at the very back because of his power unit penalty.
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he → consider → penalty
Nico Hulkenberg - 7/10
Missing Q2 was disappointing but he responded with a strong recovery on Sunday.
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he → miss → Sunday
Stroll joined Alonso in Q2 and kept himself out of trouble through a chaotic race to finish 12th, even if his team-mate ultimately extracted more from the opportunity.
Franco Colapinto - 7/10
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mate → join → opportunity
Started 21st due to grid penalties, so 13th represented a very respectable recovery.
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13th → start → recovery
Knocked out in Q1 and although he gained a couple of places during the race, 14th was about all there was to show for it.
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14th → knock → it
Ultimately finished behind Bearman and was unable to make the changing conditions work sufficiently to threaten the points.
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conditions → finish → points
Qualifying ninth was an excellent start but Sunday unravelled almost immediately.
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Sunday → qualify → ?
Nearly lost the car on slicks during the formation procedure and ultimately fell all the way to 16th as Alpine's gamble failed to pay off.
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gamble → lose → 16th
Carlos Sainz - 6/10
Williams struggled for pace throughout the weekend but 13th represented a good qualifying.
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13th → struggle → qualifying
His race was then further compromised by contact with Bortoleto, for which the Audi driver was penalised, so 17th doesn't tell the whole story.
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17th → compromise → story
There was plenty to like about reaching Q3 in the Audi, but the race undid that good work.
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race → be → work
Contact with Sainz earned him a penalty and left him 18th after starting inside the top 10.
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Contact → earn → 10
Reaching the chequered flag was at least something for Cadillac, but 19th completed another difficult weekend.
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19th → reach → weekend
George Russell - 8/10
A far better race than his eighth place in qualifying suggested.
uncertain
place → suggest → qualifying
Made an excellent start, ran inside the top three for virtually the entire afternoon and, even if he couldn't match Mercedes team-mate Antonelli, was heading for another podium before a power-unit failure stopped him with five laps remaining.
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failure → make → laps
Alex Albon - 4.5/10
Williams lacked pace from the outset and qualifying 20th left him with an enormous amount of work to do.
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qualifying → lack → work
His eventual retirement was caused by a gearbox problem rather than a driving error, but there had been little sign of any kind of meaningful challenge before then.
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retirement → cause → challenge
Qualified ahead of Cadillac team-mate Perez but admitted his decision to run slicks was a risk before spinning into the gravel on lap nine and triggering the first safety car.
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decision → qualify → car
The Aporia
