Verstappen wins the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia as Russell retires

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands celebrates with his trophy after winning the Bahrain Grand Prix in Sepang, Malaysia. (AP)

SEPANG, Malaysia, Oct. 4 (AP): Max Verstappen's long wait for another Formula 1 race win is finally over. The title race might be over, too.

Verstappen took his first victory of an often-frustrating year for the four-time champion at Formula 1's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on Sunday. A retirement for George Russell handed a huge title boost to Kimi Antonelli.

Verstappen was leading, with Antonelli and Russell behind the safety car with five laps to go, when Russell suddenly pulled over in his Mercedes.

The retirement allowed Antonelli to further stretch his lead over teammate Russell from 66 points to 84, with seven races remaining on the schedule, including those in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

Mercedes told Antonelli over the radio that it appeared Russell had suffered a power unit problem.

Antonelli finished second, and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton passed Verstappen's Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar for third.

Four-time champion Verstappen hadn’t won since the final race of last season, but upgrades to his Red Bull car made him competitive again in Malaysia this week. That means Verstappen extends his run of winning at least once every year since he joined Red Bull in 2016. His only winless season was his 2015 rookie year.

"Very special for us. We had a very complicated and tough start to the year with all sorts of problems and just not being competitive enough,” he said.

It was also the first win for Red Bull Ford Powertrains, the engine partnership between Red Bull and American auto giant Ford. The last time a car with a Ford-branded engine won an F1 race was in 2003 with the Jordan team.

The first wet-weather race for F1 in 2026 started more than 90 minutes later than planned. The start was first delayed 40 minutes for heavy rain, then suspended again when cars had apparent software problems on the formation lap.

When it finally got underway, Verstappen was slow off the line and lost places to Antonelli and Russell. He chased down Russell and then got past Antonelli in a side-by-side fight after a safety-car restart.