SEPANG: Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has won back-to-back races at the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) after taking the win at the Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on Sunday (Oct 4).
Verstappen, who won the last race held in Malaysia in 2017, got his first win this season and made it even better by also getting the extra point for clocking the fastest lap of the race.
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli came in second, followed by Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in third.
The race at SIC was delayed due to heavy downpour 30 minutes before the race was slated to start at 3.00pm and refused to slow down for the next hour.
There were already cars off the track when the grid started their formation lap behind the safety car as Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar slid off into the gravel, but managed to get himself back on track.
With most cars running intermediate tyres for the race start, plenty decided to brave the condition and put on slicks, which proved challenging as it took time for the tyres to warm up and find grip.
Pole sitter Verstappen was on slicks, and the race start showed that inters were the better choice as Antonelli and Mercedes teammate George Russell jumped to the front of the pack ahead of Verstappen.
On lap five, Verstappen overtook Russell and was on the hunt for Antonelli, and got the job done on lap 13 to take the lead of the race.
The Dutchman then stayed ahead for the majority of the race, building a lead of more than 10 seconds to Antonelli.
But with 11 laps left of the 55 lap race, Alexander Albon parked his Williams at the side of the track due to a gearbox issue, forcing a virtual safety car for a lap before the full safety car was brought out.
The grid bunched up behind the safety car as the backmarkers unlapped themselves while the marshals worked on getting Albon’s into the side road.
But before the safety car restart, Russell’s race came to an end as a power unit issue forced him to pull over after the pit exit.
The race finally got underway again with just four laps to go, and Verstappen kept his grip on the lead as Antonelli stayed close behind.
Meanwhile, Hamilton gave the local fans a big reason to cheer after he overtook Isack Hadjar to move into third place with three laps remaining.
