F1 Bahrain GP in Malaysia descends into chaos as car trouble prompts red flag

Suspected power unit gremlins for a number of cars, including Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, forced Formula 1 race control to suspend the start of a wet Bahrain Grand Prix

The Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia has been red-flagged after several cars suffered power unit gremlins during a wet set of formation laps.

After a heavy tropical thunderstorm, the action at Malaysian Sepang was set to get underway with a number of laps behind the safety car followed by a standing start.

But ahead of F1's first-ever wet event under the 2026 regulations, a number of cars suffered power unit gremlins in the rain, suspected to be software related.

Initially, polesitter Max Verstappen reported a lack of acceleration from his Red Bull before the Dutchman got going again. Soon after, second-placed Lewis Hamilton reported a similar issue on his Ferrari, with the Briton crawling around the first formation lap as the rest of the field passed him. One lap later, Hamilton too managed to get going again.

More cars, including Racing Bulls man Liam Lawson, Audi driver Gabriel Bortoleto and Cadillac's Valtteri Bottas, also appeared to struggle with similar problems, with race control suspending the start procedure and throwing a red flag.

With the grid mixed up as cars streamed into pitlane, race control will revert to the original grid positions when the running is resumed.

Race control eventually announced a start time of 16:33 local time, amounting to what would be a 50-minute delay.