Piastri’s P6 and Norris’s gravel slide define McLaren’s day.
McLaren left the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia with ten championship points and a long list of questions. Oscar Piastri finished sixth and Lando Norris ninth after a Sunday at Sepang that tested every team’s judgement, patience and nerve.
Both cars scored, yet neither came close to the podium on a day when Max Verstappen won and Ferrari staged a remarkable recovery.
A Race That Struggled to Begin
Round sixteen of the 2026 season marked Formula 1’s return to Sepang after a nine-year absence, and the circuit answered with tropical weather at its most severe.
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Heavy rain, thunder and lightning arrived just as the drivers prepared for the dummy grid, and Race Control postponed the start. Exploratory formation laps behind the Safety Car then exposed software problems in the 2026 power units, leaving cars stranded and the grid in disarray.
The FIA later described the glitch as unprecedented, and teams applied engine software updates before the field was restored to its original order. T
he race eventually ran for 55 laps, with the chequered flag falling almost three and a half hours after the scheduled start, according to Sky Sports F1.
The Tyre Gamble Behind McLaren’s Afternoon
As the track dried, 13 of the 22 drivers, including both McLarens and both Ferraris, gambled on slick tyres, while Verstappen and the Mercedes pair stayed on intermediates.
The wager quickly began to unravel. On the lap to the grid the surface proved too slippery, and Piastri was among the first to return to the pits for intermediates, alongside both Audis. That early correction appears to have limited the damage.
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The Ferrari drivers, who started on slicks, plunged towards the back of the field before a timely Safety Car on lap nine closed the pack.
Piastri then spent his afternoon adapting to changing conditions, and his sixth place, 9.454 seconds behind Verstappen, was a measured result rather than a spectacular one.
He finished ahead of Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls and the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, who took a season-best eighth to cap Aston Martin’s strongest weekend of a difficult year.
Norris and the Turn One Slide
Norris had been running close behind his team-mate in seventh when the race produced its decisive moment for him.
Just after George Russell stopped on the pit straight with a suspected power unit failure during the second Safety Car period, Norris misjudged his braking into Turn One and slid through the gravel.
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He recovered to finish ninth, 13.993 seconds behind the winner and one place ahead of Arvid Lindblad in the final points position. In a race this volatile, a single braking error behind a Safety Car carried the same cost as a strategic miscalculation, and it dropped him two places.
Reading the Result Against the Field
Context sharpens the picture. Verstappen converted pole position into victory, ending his own wait since last season’s Abu Dhabi finale and delivering Red Bull’s first win with its own power unit.
Kimi Antonelli finished second and extended his championship lead over Russell to 84 points.
Lewis Hamilton recovered from deep in the field to take third, ending a five-race podium drought for Ferrari, while Charles Leclerc was fourth and Isack Hadjar fifth.
The contrast is instructive. The drivers who avoided slicks, Verstappen and Antonelli, took the top two places, while Hamilton’s podium came from a gamble that initially failed and was rescued by a Safety Car and strong pace.
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McLaren sat between those outcomes. Piastri corrected course early and Norris ran close behind him until his error, but neither reached the leaders.
The Numbers at a Glance
The official classification placed Piastri sixth at plus 9.454 seconds and Norris ninth at plus 13.993 seconds, with both McLarens completing all 55 laps.
Verstappen won in one hour, 47 minutes and 14.808 seconds. Antonelli followed at plus 2.307 seconds, with Hamilton third at plus 4.919, Leclerc fourth at plus 7.258 and Hadjar fifth at plus 8.571. Lawson, Alonso and Lindblad filled the other points positions.
What the Result Means for McLaren
The weekend leaves McLaren with a mixed ledger. Scoring with both cars in a chaotic race has genuine value, particularly when Russell, Alex Albon and Valtteri Bottas all failed to finish.
Yet ten points from a day on which podium places went to drivers who timed their decisions well points to a missed opportunity.
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The questions the team will want to answer are why the opening tyre call did not pay off, and how to avoid a repeat of Norris’s Turn One error.
Looking Ahead to Singapore
Formula 1 now moves directly to Marina Bay for the Singapore Grand Prix, which features the final Sprint of the season, with track action beginning this Friday.
Seven rounds remain, and the championship picture is firming up around Antonelli. For McLaren, a street circuit combined with a Sprint format leaves little room for experimentation.
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Clean execution, accurate tyre calls and disciplined restarts will matter more than raw pace.
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