Max Verstappen ends his drought at Sepang in a Grand Prix that nearly didn’t happen

For most of 2026, Max Verstappen’s season has been a story of what might have been. Today, on a soaked Sepang circuit, it finally became a story about a win.

A strange venue for a familiar result

The Bahrain Grand Prix was held in Malaysia this year, as the 16th round of the campaign. The location was unusual, but the main fact was simple: Verstappen was dominant all weekend, and took pole position, his first since the Abu Dhabi finale at the end of last season.

Chaos before the racing

Then the weather took over. The start was delayed by one hour and 33 minutes after multiple cars broke down in the wet conditions. Torrential rain, formation-lap chaos, botched tyre gambles and Safety Cars all added to the confusion.

Wet races tend to separate the great drivers from the merely good ones, and Verstappen is in the first group. When racing resumed, he kept his composure, handled the tyre change from intermediates to dries cleanly, and stayed out of trouble. At the late Safety Car restart he held his lead and went on to win.

The result that mattered

Verstappen beat championship leader Kimi Antonelli to the flag. The victory was also the first for Red Bull Ford Powertrains, which makes it a milestone for the team as well as the driver. It was his first win since last year’s Abu Dhabi finale and the 72nd of his career.

The other stories

Behind him the race kept delivering. Lewis Hamilton dropped to 18th after a Ferrari tyre-strategy gamble backfired, then recovered to take third on the podium. It was one of the drives of the day.

George Russell’s afternoon ended badly. A late engine failure forced him out, and Antonelli now leads the championship by 84 points, with 320 to Russell’s 236 and Hamilton third on 214.

What it means for the rest of the year

Verstappen’s win doesn’t change the title picture much. With Verstappen and Norris level on 188 points and seven Grands Prix still to run, he is a long way from Antonelli. But a win like this can change the mood inside a team. After a year of building and slow progress, Red Bull finally has proof that it’s heading in the right direction.

Verstappen seemed to feel the same way. He called it a really nice win after the year they’d had and the progress made.

The championship now moves to Singapore, where Red Bull will arrive with a win and some momentum.