Kimi Antonelli chose the right tyre for the wet start at Sepang and took the lead. After the track crossed over to dry tyres, Red Bull chose the more effective restart compound for Max Verstappen and he took it back. The 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia was decided by treating those as two separate decisions, not by finding one compound that worked for the whole afternoon.
The name matters. This was the Bahrain Grand Prix staged at Malaysia's Sepang International Circuit, not a race at Sakhir. The official classification records Verstappen winning after 55 laps, 2.307 seconds ahead of Antonelli, with Lewis Hamilton third.
Intermediates won the start
Heavy rain delayed the race, and the first start procedure was later suspended after several cars encountered problems on the formation lap. By the eventual standing start, the choice was no longer simply “wet or dry”: the circuit was damp and changing.
The FIA race account records an initial split between intermediates and slicks. Formula 1's detailed report adds that several drivers changed from slicks to intermediates during the laps behind the Safety Car, before the standing start. When the lights actually went out, Verstappen, Antonelli and George Russell were on intermediates, while Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc remained on slicks.
Antonelli and Russell swept past polesitter Verstappen into Turn 1 to form a Mercedes one-two. The slick starters dropped back in the opening phase; the intermediate was the correct tyre for launching and racing on the surface that existed at that moment.
That advantage had a time limit. Verstappen passed Russell on lap 6 and was already pressuring Antonelli by lap 8. The track was moving towards slick conditions even before the first neutralisation.
The first Safety Car arrived at the crossover
Valtteri Bottas spun into the gravel on lap 9 and triggered the Safety Car. By then slicks had become faster, so the intermediate runners could make the necessary switch while the field was neutralised.
Antonelli retained the lead through the stops, with Verstappen second and Russell third. The decisive difference was the compound chosen for the next phase: Mercedes fitted mediums; Red Bull fitted softs to Verstappen and Isack Hadjar.
This was not evidence that Antonelli's starting decision had been wrong. It had already delivered track position. The Safety Car changed the comparison: every leader now needed a dry tyre, and the question became which slick offered the best restart phase rather than which tyre had worked at the start.
Soft tyres changed the restart
Verstappen used the restart to pass Antonelli around the outside of Turn 1 and complete the move at Turn 2. Russell also passed his team mate before Antonelli recovered second on lap 21. By then Verstappen had opened a gap of about five seconds.
Formula 1's race-day team report attributes Red Bull's recovery to putting Verstappen on softs while the Mercedes pair used mediums. That account is useful for the decision sequence, but it does not provide a universal pace number for either compound. Traffic, tyre temperature, car performance and restart execution remained part of the outcome.
The early slick gamble illustrates the same point from the opposite direction. Hamilton and Leclerc lost substantial ground at the wet start, yet later recovered to third and fourth. A tyre can be wrong for the opening surface without remaining wrong for the whole race.
Verstappen kept the lead after the final restart
Verstappen retained a clear advantage through the planned pit-stop phase. A later Virtual Safety Car, followed by a full Safety Car, compressed the race again and created another round of stops. He returned to the front before the final restart and kept Antonelli behind.
Russell stopped late in the race, changing the final classification and Mercedes' result, but Verstappen was already leading before that retirement. It should not be used as the cause of the win.
The lesson from Sepang is narrower and more useful than “soft was the winning tyre.” Intermediates won the wet launch; the Safety Car opened the crossover; softs then gave Verstappen the stronger restart phase. Strategy worked because Red Bull updated the answer when the track and race state changed.