How Williams and Haas lost a rare points chance at Sepang

Rain briefly put Williams and Haas in the points fight at Sepang. By the end of Sunday's 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, neither team had scored.

A heavy shower before the start delayed the race and left the circuit wet. Williams put both cars on intermediates; Haas split its choice, with Esteban Ocon on inters and Oliver Bearman on softs. At the end of lap one, Carlos Sainz was sixth from 13th, Alex Albon seventh from 18th and Ocon eighth from 17th. Ocon soon passed both Williams cars for sixth.

The first Safety Car sent the intermediate runners to the pits for slicks. Albon was behind Sainz and lost places when Williams double-stacked him behind his team-mate; faster cars that had started on slicks were also gaining ground. At the restart, Gabriel Bortoleto made contact with Sainz at Turn 2 and sent him into a spin. Bortoleto apologised, and the stewards later found him at fault, imposing a 10-second penalty. Sainz said he had left room and believed Bortoleto had not expected the inside of Turn 2 to be wet.

That collision was not the whole explanation for Williams’ slide. Sainz said the car’s pace was not especially strong and cited two very slow pit stops, adding that it would have been a difficult day anyway. Team principal James Vowles called the opening decision to use intermediates correct, but said the Safety Car let rivals close back in and Williams did not execute perfectly afterwards or have the pace needed to make the strategy work.

Albon said he lost out in the double-stack and had to pit early after flat-spotting his soft tyres while dealing with a brake issue. A late gearbox problem ended his race. He also said his own performance was lacking and described Williams’ parts problems as performance issues, not a shortage of parts.

Haas had not matched its rivals’ pace over the weekend, although team principal Ayao Komatsu praised Ocon’s early stints. Ocon was still sixth after the first Safety Car. Hamilton passed him, and Ocon was seventh when he made a relatively early second stop.

Albon’s stoppage later brought a Virtual Safety Car and then a full Safety Car, helping drivers who had waited longer before stopping. Ocon’s tyres were a few laps older and lost temperature behind the Safety Car; he also lost time by running wide on pit entry. He said Haas could have made different choices and accepted that the team was at fault.

Bearman said he lost 40 seconds and believed a better starting-tyre choice could have put Haas in the points fight. Komatsu said the team should have called him in as soon as it recognised how much lap time he was losing. Bearman finished 14th, ahead of Ocon in 15th and Sainz in 17th; Albon retired.