Martin Brundle Expert Analyst @MBrundleF1 Monday 5 October 2026 18:50, UK Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Highlights of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia at the Sepang International Circuit I want to say straight away that I know from meeting numerous fans over the weekend, particularly at the airport on Monday morning, that a great many people suffered very long delays getting out of the venue and back to their bases. Road systems became gridlocked and transit buses blocked. While the event was necessarily hurriedly assembled, this was still disappointing, and I want to add my personal appreciation to those fans in Malaysia. Singapore GP: Sprint weekend schedule and how to watchF1 2026 Calendar | F1 2026 Standings | F1 Gossip ColumnDownload the Sky Sports app for expert analysis, best video & more📱Not got Sky?
Latest Sky Sports deals or stream F1 with no contract 📺At least those I spoke with said they thoroughly enjoyed the race and spectacle, many of whom would also have got as wet through as I did on the grid walk. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Intense rain delayed the start of the Bahrain GP in Malaysia That weather cell and deluge popped up literally just as the cars headed to the grid, and as the ‘easy up’ shelters were positioned over the cars and wet tyres feverishly wheeled out, the standing water around the track was such that the start procedure was suspended. When the rain eased, and with pleasing urgency, it was declared that there would be two formation laps behind the Safety Car and then a proper standing start. ‘Chaos’ before the start as software glitches in wetThat was all fine until we started seeing a number of cars travelling very slowly and then stopping altogether, except for the Safety Car which continued at normal pace, increasingly out by itself.Those still running were wary of the regulations and reluctant to pass very slow cars. Many of the six Ferrari-powered cars seemed affected, some Red Bull Powertrains and a McLaren Mercedes too.
Given this was the first time many of the all-new 2026 cars had run in wet conditions, there was clearly an unexpected issue. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player A chaotic formation lap saw several cars come to a crawl including Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in Malaysia It turned out to be FIA software settings. All cars must run a standard FIA ‘brain’ for many essential functions to ensure parity and abide by regulations, which couldn’t compute with cars travelling at such increasingly slow speeds, shutting down power delivery.Cars were eventually spread out all over the track in two and then three tranches. Drivers at the side of the track effectively having to hit the control/alt/delete to restart their motors.
It was chaos and the Safety Car was about to lap many cars which should have been diligently following it.The only option was to abandon the whole thing and recover to the pits, at which point the Safety Car was bizarrely mid pack rather than at the front.The next problem was to unravel the problem and regulations; would those who fully stopped and lost position, like Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, be obliged to start from the position they arrived back in the fast lane of the pits? Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen compare the starting procedure issues in Sepang during the Bahrain GP in Malaysia to the F1 Lego race. Although it took 40 minutes all told, which actually conveniently allowed the rain cell to clear the district, a smart and fair decision was made that the restart would be in original grid order. Furthermore, the FIA quickly found the issue, rewrote some code altering key power unit operating parameters which are in place for starting procedures when the car is under 50kph, and flashed that ‘patch’ to all the cars, not all of which had experienced problems, such as the Aston Martins.Anyway, it worked, even though cars would now be travelling faster behind the Safety Car on pit exit with much better track conditions, and teams and drivers by then knew what to look out for.’Sponge-like’ surface catches out Ferrari and McLarenThis track, often doused mid-race with a cloudburst, used to dry out remarkably quickly, but temperatures had been much lower on race day than during practice and qualifying.
The pit lane was bone dry, and, on television pictures, so was the pit straight and many other areas. Which tyres to use for the new standing start, more than an hour and a half after the original time slot, was the next dilemma.It looked like slick dry tyres to me, and several thought so too, like Ferrari, McLaren, Audi and Aston Martin. As soon as the cars left behind the Safety Car it was clear there was much more spray than expected, and areas such as turns three and five were still quite wet. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Watch Lewis Hamilton drop to 15th on the opening lap as Mercedes claim the lead at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia Some like Oscar Piastri at McLaren and Audi recognised immediately that the right tyre was the intermediate with the light water grooves.
Others like Hamilton and Lando Norris decided to stick with it and hope for fast improvement. Charles Leclerc did too but contact on the first racing lap broke his front wing and he had to pit anyway, so they also fitted intermediates. Despite that long stop, in no time at all he’d caught Hamilton’s sister Ferrari and passed him, such was the painfully slow pace on dry tyres.The track surface was heavily worn in places, and the extreme weather in these parts clearly take their toll year-round. There had been no time, and no appetite either given the one-off aspect of this event, to resurface it.
The nature of the asphalt, and sometimes over-60 degrees Celsius surface temperature, had been stressing the dry tyres throughout practice and qualifying with heat degradation.Now, in a situation which George Russell described over his radio as ‘weird’, the track wasn’t drying anything like as fast as expected. I believe that the old asphalt, with billions of tiny pockets of water in the surface, acted like a sponge.Verstappen seizes control as Hamilton fights backOut front it was a thrilling battle between the two Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli and Russell, and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, who were all on intermediate tyres. Max had looked the favourite to win this race for three days such was his pace.It would be nine laps before the leading slick-tyred car of Norris was faster than the intermediate-shod cars, and by then the slick runners were over a minute behind. Importantly, Hamilton had resisted the call to change onto intermediates based on the fact that he’d taken the pain and there was no point in pitting now.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen go wheel to wheel on the restart, before Verstappen slips through to take the lead Just at that moment Valtteri Bottas spun off his Cadillac deep into the gravel at turn 13 and there was a Safety Car deployed. It was perfect timing for the leaders as they could ditch their now overheating inters during a pit stop that would cost 18 seconds rather than 26 given the pack on track were at Safety Car speeds.Crucially the full (not virtual) Safety Car would stay out for a good while and this allowed the slick runners to close back up and negate the huge time losses they had thus far suffered, even if they had plenty of traffic between them and their natural rivals up front who had chosen the right tyres. This was a key reset for the race.Hamilton didn’t pit and preferred track position to fresh rubber. He would impressively run his starting soft compound dry tyres for 31 laps, and it would pay dividends.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Lewis Hamilton recovered from 18th to the podium with a great drive Cham
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