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The stewards gave Gabriel Bortoleto a ten-second penalty and held him wholly responsible for his Turn 2 collision with Carlos Sainz. The final classification lists Sainz 17th and Bortoleto 18th.
Toto Wolff was frustrated after George Russell’s late retirement from the rain-delayed 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. Wolff called the problem a power-unit failure but said Mercedes had not yet assessed it; Russell said he had been on course for a near-certain podium. Kimi Antonelli finished second and led Russell by 84 points with seven rounds remaining.
The FIA summoned Alexander Albon and a Williams representative over alleged erratic driving on the pit-entry road. Oscar Piastri and a McLaren representative were also summoned in relation to the same incident.
Anthony Davidson says prolonged time off the throttle in very wet conditions can slow a 2026 F1 car’s turbo; accelerating again can use all available energy, he says. RacingNews365 explains that a depleted battery may leave the combustion engine unable to meet the requested torque unless the turbo is spinning fast enough.
A marshal’s broomstick pantomime offered a playful moment during the rain delay before the Bahrain Grand Prix start at Sepang.
Motorsport.com reported that Friday one-lap runs at Sepang were up to 4.5 seconds slower than Pirelli’s qualifying simulations as the surface began breaking up. Pirelli’s race report describes the wet-weather tyre use and different strategies for the podium finishers.
Lewis Hamilton says he will try to stay with Max Verstappen in the Sepang race, while warning that managing overheating tyres will be a different challenge from qualifying.
Williams was fined €100 after Carlos Sainz’s car was recorded 0.3 km/h above the pit-lane speed limit during reconnaissance laps at the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
Jos Verstappen says Red Bull is working to address its car’s limitations for next season and listening to Max; he sees parallels with 2017.
Heavy rain delayed the scheduled start of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia by 40 minutes. A separate red-flag stoppage followed throttle problems during the formation-lap procedure, and the circuit dried during the race.
Marc Márquez won the Japanese Grand Prix, cutting Jorge Martín’s MotoGP championship lead to two points.
Max Verstappen and Lando Norris each have 188 points after the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, three behind Charles Leclerc. Kimi Antonelli leads the championship with 320 points.
An FIA technical report says Audi replaced the left-hand rear-view mirror lens, gearbox assembly and both rear suspension assemblies on Car 5 during parc fermé at Sepang. It also lists gearbox-related parameter changes. The delegate says the listed parts were replaced with FIA approval after a written team request.
Isack Hadjar called his five-place penalty a major disappointment after qualifying third at Sepang. The FIA said it put him eighth on the grid; its race classification lists him fifth.
RacingNews365 reports that Cadillac’s British F1 subsidiary recorded a £121.9 million after-tax loss in 2025, before the team’s 2026 debut. The outlet also reports a year-end headcount of 307 and conditional funding support described by director Dan Towriss.
Gabriel Bortoleto qualified tenth at Sepang. Formula 1 reported his comments praising Audi's package and team effort, and later reported that he was involved in a race collision and penalised.
At the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, held at Sepang, Kimi Antonelli qualified fourth. He said P2 or P3 might have been possible without his Q2 track-limits violation. The deleted lap left him with fewer fresh sets available for Q3. Before the race, Formula 1 reported that Isack Hadjar’s penalty would move Antonelli to third on the starting grid.
The FIA’s final grid confirms Colapinto in 21st after two penalties and Hadjar in eighth after a five-place power-unit penalty.
Liam Lawson said he was unsure which tyre would be best for the Sepang race, after qualifying 11th and describing tyre overheating during qualifying.
After qualifying, but before the Sepang race, Liam Lawson said he did not know which tyre would be best. The qualifying softs could complete only one flying lap but remained a possible race tyre; drivers were tending to keep hard tyres for a potential three-stop race.
Oscar Piastri saw progress for McLaren between Friday’s practice sessions at Sepang, while saying the team still had more to find. McLaren’s report listed him sixth in FP2 and noted challenges with grip and tyre degradation. Piastri later said the circuit exposed challenges in extracting time from the car. He finished sixth in the race; Lando Norris was ninth.
Max Verstappen gave Red Bull Ford Powertrains its first Formula 1 win in the supplier’s first year, beating Kimi Antonelli by 2.307 seconds at Sepang. Verstappen recovered after Antonelli and George Russell passed him at the start.
The FIA stewards ordered qualifying lap times listed for Oliver Bearman, Kimi Antonelli and Pierre Gasly to be deleted. Bearman had two entries at Turn 15, while Antonelli and Gasly each had one at Turn 6. Antonelli finished fourth and Gasly ninth in the final qualifying classification.
Honda welcomed Aston Martin’s first double-Q2 appearance of the season. Trackside chief Shintaro Orihara called the result a step in the right direction and said Honda worked on energy management and driveability between sessions.
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