I didn’t watch this one live. After seeing the highlights, I don’t know if that was a blessing or a curse.
A bit of context first, because this wasn’t even meant to be a Sepang race. It was the Bahrain Grand Prix, moved to Malaysia because of the conflict in the Middle East. So F1 turned up at a circuit it hadn’t raced at since 2017, and the forecast had been screaming rain for almost a week. Sepang is already hot, humid and demanding. Add a proper tropical downpour and it was never going to be a footnote.
It wasn’t. The start was pushed back by more than 90 minutes. Then, just when it felt like we could finally go racing, several cars, Max’s Red Bull among them, reported that they couldn’t accelerate on the formation lap. It was a software issue, and everything had to be reset. At that point Sepang seemed to be asking, “Do you guys actually want to race?”
Thankfully, they did.
Max finally gets his win
Max Verstappen won his first race of 2026. For a four-time world champion that feels strange to type, but there it is, win number 72. He started from pole, dropped to third, and then took control as the conditions kept changing.
There’s something fitting about it happening here. Sepang is fast, technical and physically demanding, and in the rain it turns into a different beast. Max handled it, and he deserved the win. But he wasn’t the reason I came away thinking, what did I just watch? That was someone else.
Lewis, what was that?
I’ve followed Lewis Hamilton for more than fifteen years. The wins, the championships, the ridiculous qualifying laps, the comebacks, the heartbreaks. I’ve seen him pull off drives that make you wonder whether the car is really doing what the timing screens say. And I still didn’t see this one coming.
He started on the front row on slick tyres while others went for intermediates, and in the wet opening laps it went badly. He slid a long way down the field. At that point you’re not thinking podium, you’re thinking let’s save what we can. Then the track started to come his way, and he began picking cars off, one after another, lap after lap. He passed Hadjar on the final restart and finished third.
I watched the highlights later, and even knowing the result I kept thinking, how is this actually happening? The safety cars compressed the field, the strategy and the conditions helped. But somebody still has to make the passes, look after the tyres and keep a Ferrari on the road while everything around it changes. He did that.
There are races you watch because your favourite driver wins. And there are races that remind you why you became a fan of that driver in the first place. This was the second kind.
George, and the power unit
George Russell was running third, with a podium in sight, when his power unit gave up behind the late safety car. He stopped on the main straight with five laps to go.
I felt for him. It’s easy to look at Kimi’s season and decide George is simply being outperformed, and Kimi has been brilliant. But I think a good part of George’s year has come down to the car, and losing a podium to the machinery underneath you is one of the cruellest ways to lose one. You can do everything right and still go home with nothing. And with Kimi so far clear and only a handful of rounds left, I think it’s fair to say, in the worst possible way, that George is realistically out of the title race now. A sad thing to write about a driver who was running third.
Kimi keeps making his case
Kimi Antonelli finished second, about two seconds behind Max, after leading early on the back of a strong start. Another podium, and another reminder that he isn’t here to make up the numbers. It’s interesting to watch a young driver go from promising rookie to someone who looks completely at home at the front, and Kimi seems to be getting there fast.
Same garage, same weekend, and completely different emotions for him and George.
And Alonso quietly took P8
Somewhere in all that chaos, Fernando Alonso finished eighth for four points. I love watching him in a race like this. Give him a complicated afternoon, changing conditions and a few tyre calls to get right, and the veteran will somehow end up somewhere he probably shouldn’t be. Eighth might not sound like much. Given where Aston Martin has been, I’ll take it.
But Sepang was the real character
Some circuits are just tracks. Others have a personality, and Sepang has plenty. Maybe it’s the heat and the humidity. Maybe it’s the long straights, followed by corners where the cars seem to vanish into the horizon before coming back at you. Maybe it’s the rain that can change a race in minutes. Probably it’s all of it together.
For me, it has a smell. Hot asphalt, wet grass, tyre smoke, and that feeling that the weather might decide what happens next.
The other day I was reading about how objects have smells of their own, and I kept thinking about Sepang. The main grandstand is shaped like a hibiscus, Malaysia’s national flower, so it feels right that this is the place showing off its scent. 😉
With the new regulations, new cars and new power units, and everything going on around the sport right now, there was something oddly reassuring about being back at a place like this. The cars change, the rules change, the drivers change. A circuit like this still reminds you what Formula 1 is supposed to feel like. Fast, unpredictable, a little bit terrifying and occasionally ridiculous.
Maybe that’s why I still love it
You can spend a whole weekend on sector times, tyre degradation and long-run pace. You can argue about strategy and who has the better car, and try to work out how the championship will go. Then Sunday arrives. It rains, the start gets pushed back, cars can’t accelerate on the formation lap, Max wins, Kimi is second, George loses a podium, Alonso scores, and Lewis climbs onto the podium. Suddenly none of the predictions matter.
Sometimes F1 gives you exactly what you expected. And sometimes, on a wet Sunday at Sepang, it gives you something you couldn’t have written if you tried.
This race will be remembered for Max finally getting his win, for Kimi, for George’s heartbreak and for Alonso doing Alonso things. But I’ll remember it most for Lewis. It’s one of those drives that makes you sit back after the highlights finish and stare at the screen for a moment.
Still can’t look away.
Sources
Sky Sports: Verstappen wins first race of 2026 in rain-hit Bahrain GP in Malaysia, as Hamilton surges back
Al Jazeera: Verstappen wins rain-delayed Bahrain GP in Sepang
Grande Prêmio: Verstappen ends win drought as Hamilton recovers
F1 Fansite: 2026 Bahrain GP race report and classification
News.gp: Max Verstappen wins challenging race at Sepang
Box Repsol: Sepang and its flower-shaped stand