Verstappen wins Bahrain GP in Malaysia after long delays

Max Verstappen took his and Red Bull’s first win of the year with a dominant drive in a dramatic Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia that started amid chaotic and unprecedented scenes.

Verstappen led home the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who took a giant leap towards his first world title when team-mate George Russell retired from third place with a suspected engine problem with five laps to go.

Antonelli now leads Russell by 84 points with either six or seven races remaining.

Lewis Hamilton drove an extraordinary race after dropping towards the back with an incorrect tyre choice for a wet start to fight back to pass Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar for third place with three laps to go.

All that came after a delay of an hour and a half caused initially by heavy rain and then by a series of bizarre technical problems that left several cars crawling as they completed formation laps on the wet track behind the safety car.

After that problem, it took some time for governing body the FIA to decide the order in which the cars should take the start.

The key stories of a madcap afternoon were:

Verstappen’s dominant win in a revived Red Bull

The effective death knell for Russell’s already faint title hopes

A series of questions over race organisation, particularly over the start

Once the race got under way, with the cars in their original order, Verstappen and Hamilton on the front row immediately lost ground and the Mercedes of Antonelli and Russell swept past them into first and second places.

Verstappen and the Mercedes drivers took the start on intermediate tyres on the still-wet track after a torrential tropical downpour had delayed the start.

Hamilton chose soft-compound slicks and immediately regretted the decision as it became apparent that the track was still far too wet for that option. He and others who chose slicks immediately dropped to the back of the field, and lost nearly a minute to the leaders in the early laps.

Meanwhile, Verstappen repassed Russell for second place on lap six, and was on Antonelli’s tail when a safety car was deployed to allow marshals to recover the Cadillac of Valtteri Bottas, who had spun off at Turn 13 on lap nine.

The leaders took the opportunity of the safety car to pit for slick tyres, and when the race resumed four laps later, Verstappen immediately passed Antonelli at Turn Four, the Italian also losing out to Russell on the exit of the corner.

From that moment on, Verstappen was total in control and he edged away into a race of his own.

Behind him, Antonelli had pace on Russell and passed him on lap 21 at Turn Four, the move seemingly settling the top three positions.

A late safety car caused by Alex Albon’s stricken Williams led to everyone switching to fresh tyres for a four-lap dash to the flag, but again Verstappen was supreme and remained unchallenged.

Even then, there was drama, as Russell pulled off just before Turn One with five laps to go before the safety car had even ended.

In the immediate aftermath, Lando Norris was apparently distracted by Russell’s car and had to take to the gravel at Turn One to avoid running into the back of team-mate Oscar Piastri, dropping from eighth to 11th.

He recovered to ninth by the end, immediately behind Fernando Alonso, who scored points for Aston Martin for only the third time this year after their strongest performance of the year.

Hamilton and the others who chose to use dry tyres at the start immediately lived to regret their decision, as they were passed by all the cars on intermediates.

Within a few laps, Hamilton was nearly a minute behind the leaders and down in 17th place, his race apparently over.

But he stayed out during the safety car, sticking with the soft tyres he had chosen for the start, and when the race restarted he began to pick off the cars in front of him, driving an excellent race to get back into contention for serious points.

Hamilton passed car after car until by lap 24 he was on the tail of Isack Hadjar’s fourth-placed Red Bull.

They pitted together on lap 31, Hadjar sticking to soft tyres, and Hamilton having no choice but to move to mediums.

Hamilton trailed the Frenchman for lap after lap, right on his tail, but was never quite able to get close enough to pass, despite a number of attempts, before the late safety car.

That gave Hamilton the chance to switch to the preferred soft tyres, and a lap after the restart he passed Hadjar into Turn One to take the final podium position.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc also passed Hadjar in the closing laps, with Oscar Piastri taking sixth after a dispiriting weekend for McLaren, ahead of Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and Alonso.

Norris and the second Racing Bulls of Arvid Lindblad completed the top 10.

After the tropical downpour, the race was initially started with formation laps behind the safety car. But immediately the problems stated.

Verstappen and Hamilton were the first of a number of cars that were afflicted by a software issue that left them unable to do more than crawl along.

Initial indications were that this was caused by a software update issued to teams by governing body the FIA during the start delay. The FIA has yet to respond to requests for comment on the matter.

Most teams who were afflicted managed eventually to get their cars going, but the field order was jumbled, and that led to a debate as to the positions in which the cars should take the restart.

The rules did not cover the situation, which was unprecedented. And although they outline positional penalties for any driver who is not able to regain his position by a certain place on the track having lost it on a formation lap, this was ignored in restarting the race in its original order.