Sepang:Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen described his opening day at the 2026 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix as positive, despite facing challenging conditions during the second practice session at the Sepang International Circuit.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, the four-time world champion began strongly by topping the first free practice session with a time of 1 minute 37.520 seconds. He then finished fourth in the second session with a time of 137.785s. Verstappen, who last won the Malaysian GP at Sepang in 2017, noted that the hot track and high tyre degradation were significant challenges throughout the day.

Verstappen commented on the difficulty in assessing progress between the sessions due to warmer conditions during the second practice and different programs being run by the teams. He mentioned that while the start was decent, the team had several aspects to figure out due to the tricky conditions.

Meanwhile, Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team driver George Russell, experiencing Sepang for the first time, highlighted the challenges posed by high tyre degradation. He acknowledged that the team needed to make setup adjustments, as they were not quite at the desired pace. Russell finished second fastest in the opening session with 137.903s and seventh in the second with 138.020s.

The third and final free practice session is set to begin at 1230 pm tomorrow, followed by the qualifying session later in the day. In July, Formula 1 confirmed Malaysia as the host of the Gulf Air Bahrain GP from October 2 to 4, following an agreement with the FIA and the governments of Malaysia and Bahrain. This agreement retains the Bahrain GP on the 2026 F1 calendar after its earlier cancellation due to geopolitical tensions in West Asia. Malaysia previously hosted the Malaysian GP from 1999 to 2017 before it was removed from the F1 calendar.