Max Verstappen wins the Bahrain GP relocated to Malaysia, Lewis Hamilton on the podium

A Grand Prix full of twists and turns. Starting in pole position, the Dutchman Max Verstappen scored his first victory of the season on Sunday October 4 at the F1 GP in Bahrain, and exceptionally relocated to Malaysia. This is his 72nd career victory. He is ahead of the championship leader, Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) and the seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari). Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) finished in fifth place.

“We arrived here thinking that this would be a difficult track for us,” began Laurent Mekies, Red Bull boss. “But Max [Verstappen] was untouchable all weekend and Isack [Hadjar] was very good too. This is our 16th race with our own engine. And we learned a lot in the difficult times at the start of the year.” “We win in the first year with our engine, it’s very impressive,” said Max [Verstappen].

The unexpected comeback of Lewis Hamilton

In fourth position for a long time, then moved up to third place taking advantage of the retirement of Georges Russell - his 3rd this season - five laps from the end, Isack Hadjar experienced, according to him, problems with his car. The French driver, who scored a 9th top 6 for him in his first year with Reb Bull, regretted problems with "the engine", a lack of "rhythm" and "battery".

This benefited Lewis Hamilton, author of an incredible comeback, from the back of the grid to the podium. With more than a minute behind the race leader, the Ferrari driver grabbed an unexpected third place. "What a difficult race! At the start, we didn't make the right choices. It was very difficult, and I was more than a minute behind. I told myself it was over for me, but we reversed the trend, and we chased the other drivers. It's the best race we've ever had here," rejoiced the Briton. His Monegasque teammate Charles Leclerc finished fourth.

The start of the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix was delayed by an hour and a half due to very heavy rain which fell on the Sepang circuit. A first start was then aborted after several cars experienced electronic and computer problems during formation laps on the wet track.