Car 3 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing won the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix for his 72nd F1 win. This is his 1st win & 8th Top 3 of 2026. 2nd Place Car 12 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes posted his 13th Top 3 of 2026. 3rd Place Car 44 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari posted his 6th Top 3 of 2026.
4th Place Car 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari followed by 5th place Car 6 Isack Hadjar Red Bull Racing. 6th Place Car 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren followed by 7th place Car 30 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls. 8th Place Car 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin followed by 9th place Car 1 Lando Norris McLaren. Lastly in the Top 10 was Car 41 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls, in 10th place. Canadian Car 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin finished in 12th place.
F1 – 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia Post-Race Press Conference Transcript
DRIVERS
1 – Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing)
2 – Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
3 – Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by David Coulthard)
Q: Max Verstappen, it’s your 72nd victory and I suspect your sweetest.
Max Verstappen: It’s a really nice one, you know, after the year that we’ve had and the progression that we’ve made. So, yeah, I’m incredibly proud of everyone and it’s just super nice to win here.
Q: What a complicated race to unpack. You had to be one of the few who made the decision to start on the intermediates. You didn’t get off the line well. Mercedes at that point were looking strong. Put us in the cockpit, take us on that journey back to winning this Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen: Yeah, it was very hectic with a lot of different things. In the start, no power, so you have to wait for the power to kick in. But then, yeah, we made the right call with the intermediates and after that, step by step, we moved our way forward. From there onwards, we could do our own race until the end, again, of course, with a Safety Car, but we kept it all under control.
Q: Kimi, coming to you. You battled hard. There were many opportunities there, but in the end, Max just had a little bit more pace. But you must be satisfied with that second place?
Kimi Antonelli: Yeah, I mean, I think today was the maximum we could have done. Of course, massive congrats to Max and Red Bull for the incredible weekend. On our side, a lot of work to do. Of course, we’ve been struggling a bit more than usual, but still really happy to come away with P2.
Q: Your first experience of this Malaysian track. Obviously, we’re here celebrating the Bahrain Grand Prix. You enjoyed it?
Kimi Antonelli: Yeah, it was amazing and the fans were incredible this weekend, so thank you so much. And hopefully we’ll come back in the future to Malaysia.
Q: Thank you, Kimi. Lewis, perfect example of never giving up. You were a minute behind at one point and you fought through, and this must be a proud third place for you.
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, well, thank you, guys. Big congratulations to Max. What a tough race that was. Obviously, we had the wrong call at the beginning, which was so difficult, and I could see everyone just pulling away. And as I could see on the screen, it was a minute down, and I thought that was kind of race over for us. But I just kept my head down. The guys did a great job with the pit stops. Obviously, lots of tyre changes, lots of chasing, and honestly, of all the years I’ve been here, this is the best race we’ve had here, but particularly because of this crowd. So, big thank you, everyone.
Q: Well, congratulations, Lewis. Max, coming back to you. This is a historical moment for the Red Bull Racing team. A few years ago, the late Mr Mateschitz and, of course, his partner Mr Yoovidhya decided to build their own powertrain. You’ve now delivered their first victory.
Max Verstappen: It’s incredible. I think already, of course, we started, but also to win our first race in our first year with our own power unit is pretty impressive.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Welcome to the post-race press conference for the FIA Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. We have today’s race winner in the centre, Max Verstappen; on the left, in second place, Kimi Antonelli; and on the right, completing the podium, Lewis Hamilton. Max, I’ll start with you. Huge congratulations. Your 72nd win for Red Bull and the first for the Red Bull powertrain, but you’ve had to wait 309 days for this. Tell me how this win feels today.
Max Verstappen: Yeah, of course, very special for us. I mean, we had a very complicated and tough start to the year with all sorts of problems and just not being competitive enough. But throughout the year, the team has been working very hard to understand our issues and bring good performance upgrades to the car and make it more driveable. Step by step, we’ve been getting closer and closer, and today, and of course especially this whole weekend, we’ve been really in good form. So, yeah, it’s amazing. I mean, the race, of course, was quite complicated. It was not made easy for us in terms of all the calls that we had to make and then the Safety Car at the end, but we kept cool and we made all the right calls with the tyres. So, yeah, very, very enjoyable to win here and also have our first victory for our own engine. I mean, it’s an incredible project with a lot of partners and a lot of people that are dedicated to be where we are now. So, yeah, fantastic feeling.
Q: What was going through your mind at the start when the two Mercedes appeared either side of you and went ahead?
Max Verstappen: I mean, I was not surprised because my start was horrendous. Again, dropping the clutch and not having power. The engine just completely died on me. But then you just have to settle in, try not to overreact as well, and just slot in, try to keep your position there. The race is long, a lot of things can happen and, step by step, I could close the gap. And then I had quite a, I think, quite a nice battle on the slicks with Kimi. It’s quite slippery in some phases of the corner, but, yeah, it was nice.
Q: If I can move to you now, Kimi. Congratulations. Not the win, but you have extended your lead in the championship today to 84 points. You had a fantastic start, you got into the lead, but ultimately was it just that the Red Bulls had too much pace for you today? Was there anything else out there for you?
Kimi Antonelli: Yeah, I think, you know, Max has been very, very quick all weekend. Red Bull, they’ve been doing a great job, and we’ve just been struggling more than previous races. I think we’re still trying to understand the new package because also this track, with such a rough tarmac and high temperatures, it made our life more difficult. And probably next week in Singapore, we hopefully will have a better read on the package and also understanding what set-up needs to be run. But I think today, with the pace we had, P2 was the maximum we could have achieved.
Q: I’m going to ask you about the upgrade. Do you think, then, the surface here has masked the potential of it? Does the team understand whether it’s a step forward or a step back?
Kimi Antonelli: That’s the question we need to answer because we don’t really know if it made us go faster or worse. Fair to say, this season, whenever we went on really old tarmacs, we’ve struggled. For example, Zandvoort, McLaren was much quicker than us, especially on the older tarmac. So I think maybe it’s just a question, maybe it’s just a fact that the tarmac is just very old and that for the tyres it’s very, very hard, and maybe we just struggle on this kind of tarmac. But, of course, the track and the tarmac made our life difficult in understanding whether it made us improve or not. But I’m sure the team, you know, they have a lot of data, especially after this weekend, and I’m sure for Singapore we will come with a much, much better view on the package and hopefully we can extract the full potential out of it.
Q: Thank you, Kimi. Lewis, what a race. Running 17th and a minute down at one point, but 29 laps on the soft saved yourself a pit stop, essentially. Can you take us inside your helmet at the start of the race, where you were on the slicks and the others weren’t around you, and then the mentality you used to get yourself back into that race and ultimately be sitting here?
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, well, firstly, big, big congrats to Max today. They’ve done a really great job in improving through this year. And I think for us, we were having a good weekend. The car felt great in qualifying. It felt amazing to get to second, and I really, really, really… Me and my engineers were here till, like, 11:30 last night just going over everything, and I really, really felt today was the opportunity to have at least a good battle with Max. But then, obviously, the rain came, the big panic with everyone when we all lost power. And particularly, my power didn’t come back and I had to stop on track and restart the car. And then we all ended up in the pit lane. Thankfully, we all got back to our positions, but then after that there was such a long wait and we were debating on what tyre to go on to. And I said, “Look, there was a lot of spray on the laps to the grid.” And I went into the pit lane, I looked at the ground, I was like, “It’s still wet.” I went to the pit wall and I was like, “It’s still wet.” And they’re like, “Yeah, but because it’s been so long, it’s definitely going to dry up real quick and maybe we’re already in the crossover.” So, anyways, as a team, we ended up taking that soft and when we were at the end of the pit lane and these two took off their blankets and they’re on inters, we were in trouble. And as we pulled out, all the spray came out the back of Max’s car and I was like, “Okay, I’m done. My race is really in trouble.” So, I mean, he didn’t make it around on the formation lap, so then we just had to stick with it. Like, we’ve made the decision and live with it. And I think then, through that, as everyone’s overtaken me, they’re like, “We stop,” because I know we’ve already made another 26 seconds. What’s the difference from that with one minute 40 or whatever I was down? So I was just, “Let’s just wait it out for the track to dry.” And once it did, it felt good that I was catching people. The car felt great then after that. Really good pit stops from my guys in the garage and then good strategy. But for us to get back to the podium, I never thought that that was going to be the case. But, of course, I’m really, really grateful that we managed to get back here.
Q: We heard you on the radio saying, “No, let’s take the gamble.” Fighting spirit from you there. What was possible today and what will you be saying in the debrief to help the team move forward and so that the decisions are correct in future?
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, not going to go to the casino with the guys.
Q: You have an open dialogue, you feel?
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, of course. Yeah, we’ll definitely have an open dialogue. And, you know, I’m really so proud of my team. The mechanics every weekend, just the work they’re putting in, the engineers that accompany here every weekend, the catering, everyone really, really comes and gives it their best. Their heart’s all in the right spot. We’ve definitely got areas that we need to improve and we know that, and we’re not in any denial of that. So I think we’ll have a constructive chat, we’ll regroup, we’ll take the positives from this weekend, which the car was really good, and we’ll come back next week fighting. I thought today, as I said, was a chance for us potentially to try and fight Max for the win, but maybe we can do that next week.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) For Max and for Lewis. Lewis, you already referenced the big panic you felt when you couldn’t feel any power. Could you just talk through what happened in those moments? And how concerning is it for F1, with these very complicated engines, the first bit of rain and we’ve ended up in a situation like this?
Max Verstappen: That’s the problem that we have. You know, these engines are so complicated and a lot of software is implemented. And, yeah, when there’s like some kind of… I want to call it… That’s the problem. And, yeah, I triggered it first and then I look in my mirror, I just see… I was like, “Wait, are they waiting for me or what’s going…?” It was like the Lego race.
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, we had the same speed.
Max Verstappen: Same speed. Yeah, it was insane. Like, it’s the Lego power. At some point we were five-wide on the straight because we couldn’t understand what was going on. Then we did a lap and then I see eight other cars crawling still, and I saw you by yourself crawling.
Lewis Hamilton: Well, I had to stop on track and stop the car and engine and restart it. I’ve never done that before.
Max Verstappen: Yeah, what can you say? I mean, that’s not what you want, right, for the sport.
LH: Yeah, I hope there is a lesson learned.
Q: (Laurine Slingerland – NU.nl) A question for Max. Congrats, first, on the win. We saw your father got emotional and I was wondering if you got emotional as well, and what this win means for you also as a family?
Max Verstappen: Yeah, I mean, we’re all very much invested in it. And, of course, you know, my relationship with my dad, we really understand each other well from all the years that we have spent together working towards our goal in Formula 1. So he’s still there in the background. He’s not coming every race, but when he is there, we talk a lot about everything. He knows everything. And, yeah, also for him, I guess the beginning of the season was not nice to watch, as for me being in the car was not nice to drive. But then seeing how the team progressed and basically never really stopped working and really took the car and just really tried to fix the issues that we had, and then deliver something like this, it’s amazing. And also with the people involved, honestly, the spirit in the team is very good. Everyone is on the same line and we really understand each other well. So it’s very enjoyable to work in the team and that’s why I think also everyone is super happy that we finally delivered a result like this.
Q: (Ajit Devadason – The New Indian Express) It’s a question for Kimi. Kimi, today you finished a couple of seconds behind Max and a couple of seconds ahead of Lewis. You’re racing alongside two drivers who represent very different generations of greatness. How much are you consciously learning from watching Max’s ability to manage a race and Lewis’ experience to never, ever give up? And do you feel that guidance is already influencing the driver and champion that you’re becoming?
Kimi Antonelli: That’s a good question. Yeah, I think, you know, it’s always great to, first of all, be able to share the track, especially, you know, in this case with Max and Lewis, because they’re definitely rewriting… Well, Lewis basically did the history of the sport and Max is doing the same. So I think, on my side, I try to learn as much as possible whenever I drive closely to them. Today was a really good showcase of how Max handled the restart on slick tyres and the slippery track. He just knew much better how to position the car and had a better feeling for the grip in those first two corners and overtook me. So, of course, that was really good. Even though it was not nice to get overtaken, I was very annoyed with that, it was still a good way to learn from that and to use it in the future. And then, of course, with Lewis, I think we’ve seen many, many times, many years, that even when things go badly, he always keeps his head down and tries to do his best to achieve the best result possible.
Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Sorry about that. On the restart, after the restart, to Max and to Lewis. There was a long delay after the initial start was suspended. Were you guys told why there was that delay? Because the track was basically dry when we got racing again. Was it to do with the weather or something else?
Max Verstappen: Well, I mean, Lewis probably tends to disagree that it was dry.
Lewis Hamilton: No, but it was because they had to update the software and then you have to load it into the car. I guess some had some faster laptops than others.
Max Verstappen: Yeah, that was the delay, just getting the software transferred, I guess, for everyone.
Q: Is that a bit crazy, that there’s almost an hour delay because software needs to be updated to the cars? This is supposed to be the pinnacle of motor racing.
Max Verstappen: Yeah, you know, we’re partnered with Oracle, so we have very, very fast connection. So we were there, you know, we were waiting for half an hour. So maybe some others had a bit of a slower connection.
Q: Max, could you just explain for us what was going on in the car when you guys were having that issue? Because if you’re off throttle too long in these cars, they don’t like it. I mean, this is the new generation, isn’t it?
Max Verstappen: Yeah, there was nothing going on. That was the problem. It was just like driving at, what, 35 kilometres, going uphill, actually losing speed. So, yeah, I don’t know exactly, because when you go too low in speed and too low RPM, for whatever reason, then it just bogs down. And normally it takes one or two seconds and it comes back. That’s basically also what I had in the start. But somehow that didn’t trigger in the first software round, and then in the second software round it was a bit better, luckily. Otherwise, I think I would’ve been stuck as well in the start, which I had probably a few times in the beginning of the year as well when I had a poor start, but it meant that I was lost. So at least now it was a bit better.
The 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix Race Results
2026 October 4 Bahrain Grand Prix Circuit: Sepang International Circuit First Grand Prix 1999, Number of laps 56, Circuit Length 5.543 km Race Distance: 310.417 km Fastest lap time 1:34.080 Sebastian Vettel (2017)
Position Car Driver Team Laps Status
1. Car 3 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 55 – 1:47:14.808 – Running
2. Car 12 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 55 – Running
3. Car 44 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 55 – Running
4. Car 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 55 – Running
5. Car 6 Isack Hadjar Red Bull Racing 55 – Running
6. Car 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren 55 – Running
7. Car 30 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 55 – Running
8. Car 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 55 – Running
9. Car 1 Lando Norris McLaren 55 – Running
10. Car 41 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls 55 – Running
11. Car 27 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 55 – Running
12. Car 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 55 – Running – Canadian
13. Car 43 Franco Colapinto Alpine 55 – Running
14. Car 87 Oliver Bearman Haas F1 Team 55 – Running
15. Car 31 Esteban Ocon Haas F1 Team 55 – Running
16. Car 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine 55 – Running
17. Car 55 Carlos Sainz Williams 55 – Running
18. Car 5 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 55 – Running
19. Car 11 Sergio Perez Cadillac 55 – Running
20. Car 63 George Russell Mercedes 49 – DNF
21. NC Car 23 Alexander Albon Williams 41 – DNF
22. NC Car 77 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac 7 – DNF
2026 Drivers Standings
Position Driver Nationality Car Points
1. Kimi Antonelli ITA Mercedes 320
2. George Russell GBR Mercedes 236
3. Lewis Hamilton GBR Ferrari 214
4. Charles Leclerc MON Ferrari 191
5. Lando Norris GBR McLaren 188
6. Max Verstappen NED Red Bull Racing 188
7. Oscar Piastri AUS McLaren 128
8. Isack Hadjar FRA Red Bull Racing 96
9. Liam Lawson NZL Racing Bulls 65
10. Pierre Gasly FRA Alpine 41
11. Arvid Lindblad GBR Racing Bulls 38
12. Franco Colapinto ARG Alpine 27
13. Oliver Bearman GBR Haas F1 Team 20
14. Gabriel Bortoleto BRA Audi 10
15. Nico Hulkenberg GER Audi 7
16. Esteban Ocon FRA Haas F1 Team 7
17. Fernando Alonso ESP Aston Martin 7
18. Carlos Sainz ESP Williams 7
19. Alexander Albon THA Williams 5
20. Yuki Tsunoda JPN Racing Bulls 1
21. Lance Stroll CAN Aston Martin 0
22. Valtteri Bottas FIN Cadillac 0
23. Sergio Perez MEX Cadillac 0
2026 Constructor Standings
Position Teams Points
1. Mercedes 556
2. Ferrari 405
3. McLaren 316
4. Red Bull Racing 298
5. Racing Bulls 90
6. Alpine 68
7. Haas F1 Team 27
8. Audi 17
9. Williams 12
10. Aston Martin 7
11. Cadillac 0
Next Event: ROUND 17 Singapore 09 – 11 Oct
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