Summary
- Mercedes described Sepang as its toughest Saturday of the season.
- Antonelli qualified fourth and Russell eighth; they will start third and seventh after Hadjar’s penalty.
- Wolff and Shovlin expect a demanding, multi-stop race and hope strategy can help recover ground.
Mercedes admits it has yet to establish why its performance fell away in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, after Kimi Antonelli topped final practice at Sepang.
Antonelli finished fourth in qualifying, 0.501s behind Max Verstappen, while George Russell was eighth, 0.741s off pole. Isack Hadjar’s five-place penalty moves the Mercedes drivers to third and seventh on Sunday’s grid.
The team’s post-session assessment focused on the contrast between its encouraging morning pace and its inability to reproduce that competitiveness when qualifying determined the starting order.
Wolff says Mercedes cannot rule anything out
Team principal Toto Wolff said Mercedes needs to examine the full picture before identifying the cause of its difficulties. The team has not reached a definitive diagnosis after two days of running at Sepang.
“That was our toughest Saturday of the season, and we need to dig deep to understand exactly why that was. We have plenty to analyse from the two days of running here in Sepang to get to the heart of why we have struggled so much. There are many factors we will need to take into consideration, and we can’t rule anything out at this stage,” Wolff said.
The setback comes during Formula 1’s return to Sepang, where high tyre degradation has complicated preparations for the race. Wolff acknowledged that Mercedes’ Friday race pace also left room for improvement.
“Tomorrow is another day. With the levels of degradation we saw in practice, we are heading a little bit into the unknown in terms of both race pace and strategy. It will likely be a Grand Prix where we see multiple stops for each car and that could provide opportunities. Equally, we know that our race pace on Friday wasn’t the strongest, so we hope the changes we have made to the car since then have helped with that, even if they didn’t benefit us on our single laps today,” he continued.
Mercedes is therefore hoping its subsequent setup changes prove more useful over a race stint than they did over a qualifying lap. Wolff’s assessment leaves that improvement to be demonstrated on Sunday.
Shovlin explains the gap between practice and qualifying
Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director, said the result fell below the team’s expectations entering the weekend. The investigation will continue beyond Saturday evening as Mercedes seeks lessons for the remaining races.
“Today was clearly a disappointing result relative to our expectations coming into the weekend. We showed encouraging pace in FP3, but couldn’t extract the same performance when we needed come qualifying. We will spend time this evening, and in the coming days, analysing the data to understand why we fell away compared to our competitors and what lessons we can take forward,” Shovlin said.
Antonelli’s qualifying was also complicated by a deleted Q2 lap for exceeding track limits, forcing him to use an additional set of soft tyres. He consequently had only one fresh set available in Q3, while Russell completed two runs on softs.
Those circumstances help explain how the session unfolded, but Mercedes’ broader concern remains its loss of competitiveness relative to Red Bull and Ferrari.
Strategy offers Mercedes a route forward
Shovlin believes both drivers remain capable of securing strong results from their starting positions. However, he stressed that making progress will depend on race pace as well as decisions on the pit wall.
“The focus now turns to tomorrow. This circuit is placing huge demands on the tyres and degradation is expected to be very high, which means strategy, tyre management and operational execution will all be critical. Whilst we would have preferred to be starting further forward, both drivers are in positions where they can fight for solid results. With a race that looks likely to feature multiple pit stops and plenty of strategic variation, there will be opportunities to make progress if we have decent pace,” he said.
Multiple pit stops could give Mercedes opportunities to change its position through strategy, but neither Wolff nor Shovlin presented that as a substitute for competitive performance.
Antonelli starts behind Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, while Russell faces a recovery from seventh. The complete order is available in the Sepang starting-grid guide.
Formula 1 continues this weekend, from 2–4 October, in Malaysia, which hosts the Bahrain Grand Prix. GRANDE PRÊMIO will cover all the action at Sepang.
F1 today: FAQ
Who won the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia?
Max Verstappen won the Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang on Sunday, 4 October, taking his first victory of the 2026 F1 season. Kimi Antonelli finished second, with Lewis Hamilton completing the podium.
Why was the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia delayed?
Heavy rain initially delayed the start at Sepang. Several drivers then experienced power delivery problems during the formation procedure, forcing race control to suspend the start again. The race eventually began more than 90 minutes after its scheduled time.
How far ahead is Kimi Antonelli in the F1 championship?
Kimi Antonelli leads George Russell by 84 points after finishing second at Sepang while his Mercedes teammate retired. Antonelli has 320 points, Russell has 236 and Lewis Hamilton is third with 214.
Why did Mercedes struggle in Sepang qualifying?
Mercedes has not established a definitive cause. Wolff and Shovlin said the team will analyse why its encouraging FP3 performance did not carry into qualifying.
