Max Verstappen dominated the Malaysian Grand Prix to secure his first win of the 2026 season, putting on a masterclass after an absolutely mental start to the race. The whole thing was delayed by over an hour and a half thanks to torrential rain and a software issue that forced officials to abort the formation lap. When racing finally got underway, the grid had to make split-second calls on tyre strategy, and it proved absolutely crucial to how the day unfolded.

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Kimi Antonelli and George Russell made the right call going with intermediates while others gambled on dry rubber. Lewis Hamilton, starting second on the dries, got absolutely destroyed and found himself down in 15th within a lap and a half. Antonelli was flying though, leading ahead of Russell before Verstappen worked his way through. A safety car bunched everyone back up after Valtteri Bottas binned his Cadillac into the gravel, and that's when Verstappen showed his class, passing Antonelli on the restart and gradually pulling away to a commanding lead.

The race got spicy again late on when a virtual safety car became a full safety car, but disaster struck George Russell when his power unit failed just before the restart. That handed him a DNF and basically ended any championship hopes he had left. Antonelli held on for second and extended his championship lead to 84 points, but Verstappen's dominance was the real story.

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Hamilton's drive through the field was genuinely special though. From way back in the pack to third place, he was putting in lap after lap quicker than everyone around him, even guys on fresher tyres. He picked off Isack Hadjar with that brilliant move at the final restart, and Charles Leclerc slipped by too to take fourth. Oscar Piastri grabbed sixth, Liam Lawson took seventh after an epic start went nowhere, and Fernando Alonso bagged valuable points for Aston Martin in eighth.

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This was Red Bull's first win with their new powertrains division, a massive moment for the team. The chaos of the day, the weather calls, the strategy gambles, and the drama with Russell's failure all made this one of those wild Malaysian Grands Prix that'll live in the memory for all the right and wrong reasons.

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