Max Verstappen had been waiting nearly a full year for a win. The Red Bull driver arrived at the Malaysian round of the 2026 season still searching for his first victory of the campaign, and left Sepang International Circuit on Sunday with the drought broken and his season turned on its head.
Verstappen crossed the line 2.307 seconds clear of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli to win the race in 1:47:14.808. Lewis Hamilton completed the podium for Ferrari after one of the most remarkable recovery drives of the season.
“It’s a really nice one, after the year that we’ve had and the progression that we’ve made,” Verstappen said after the race.
“I’m incredibly proud of everyone, and it’s just super nice to win here.”
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Verstappen also underlined what the result meant for the project behind the car, in Red Bull’s first season running its own power unit.
“It’s incredible. I think already, of course, we started, and also to win our first race in our first year with our own power unit is pretty impressive,” he said.
Rain, delays and a power unit software glitch
The round was displaced from Bahrain to Sepang after the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian races in the Middle East were cancelled, and the move to Malaysia was punished by the weather. Tropical rain delayed the start, power unit software issues delayed it again, and the field did not get away until hours after the scheduled lights out.
Verstappen’s call to go to intermediate tires paid off immediately. From there, he picked the race apart.
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“It was very hectic with a lot of different things in the start. No power, so you have to wait for the power to kick in. But then we made the right call with the intermediate [tyres], and after that, step by step, we moved our way forward,” he said.
Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle, watching from the booth, called it one of the wildest races he had ever seen.
Hamilton from 18th to the podium
Ferrari’s gamble went the other way. Hamilton had qualified on the front row alongside Verstappen but dropped to 18th once the race finally began, after the team bolted on slicks for the delayed start. He then dragged the Ferrari forward across all 56 laps to finish third, with team-mate Charles Leclerc fourth.
Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar took fifth ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. Lando Norris, Piastri’s team-mate, came home ninth after another difficult afternoon for the Woking team.
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Russell’s title bid takes a brutal blow
The podium drama belonged to George Russell. The Mercedes driver had been running third with just a handful of laps to go when his car ground to a halt during the race’s second Safety Car period, a suspected power unit failure that handed Hamilton the final podium step.
The retirement reshaped the championship. Antonelli’s second place extended his lead over his Mercedes team-mate from 66 points to 84 points, with the Italian now on 320 and Russell on 236. Hamilton sits third on 214.
Alex Albon of Williams and Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas also failed to finish.
Seven rounds left and a long gap to close
Verstappen’s victory ends a run that had threatened to make 2026 his worst season since his rookie year. It also lifts Red Bull off the floor just as the second half of the campaign enters its most compressed phase.
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The wider picture, however, has barely moved. Mercedes still lead the constructors’ standings comfortably, and with 25 points available per race, Russell would need Antonelli to collapse to turn the title fight around in the time remaining.
The paddock reconvenes at the Marina Bay Street Circuit for the Singapore Grand Prix on 9-11 October.
