Verstappen claims his first win of 2026 and Red Bull's maiden victory with their own power unit at Sepang. Hamilton gambles on softs at the start, plummets to eighteenth, then claws back to the podium. Antonelli finishes second while Russell's engine failure leaves him 84 points back in the title fight. Palmer and Jacques dissect the strategy calls, Hamilton's recovery, and whether George's championship is finished.
Verstappen breaks through for his first win of 2026 at Malaysia, holding off Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton in round sixteen. Tommo unpacks the race from lights to flag, breaks down the key moves that decided the podium, and delivers his Bangers and Clangers verdict on who shined and who stumbled.
The 2026 F1 cars are five seconds slower around Sepang than the 2017 machines were. This breakdown compares the pole laps from F1's final visit to the Malaysian circuit in 2017 against the new regulations, revealing exactly where the time disappeared. The gap shows how dramatically the sport has changed in less than a decade.
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