Formula One statistics for the Bahrain in Malaysia Grand Prix

Sept 30 - Formula One statistics for Sunday's Bahrain in Malaysia Grand Prix at the Sepang circuit, round 16 of the championship:

Lap distance: 5.543km. Total distance: 310.398km (56 laps)

Formula One last raced at Sepang in 2017, when it was the Malaysian Grand Prix

Race lap record: Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Ferrari, one minute 34.080 seconds.

SEPANG

The circuit next to Kuala Lumpur International Airport first hosted a Formula One Grand Prix in 1999. It has long straights and tight technical corners. Afternoon thunderstorms and sudden downpours are to be expected. A fully wet race would be a first for 2026.

The only still active drivers to have won there are Fernando Alonso (2005, 2007, 2012), Lewis Hamilton (2014) and Max Verstappen (2017) -- all champions.

Ferrari have won seven of the 19 races held in Malaysia.

Nine of the winners have started on pole position. The lowest grid placing ending in victory was Alonso's 2012 win for Ferrari from eighth. Hamilton has been on pole five times in Malaysia, a record he shares with Michael Schumacher.

Red Bull won the last two races at Sepang in 2016 and 2017.

Of the current 22-driver grid, only 10 have raced at Sepang in 2017: Verstappen, Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon, Alonso, Pierre Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz.

Gasly made his F1 debut with Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls) at the circuit in 2017. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc took part in first practice that same year.

CHAMPIONSHIP

Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli leads teammate George Russell by 66 points.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton is third and 103 points off the pace while McLaren's reigning champion Lando Norris is another 13 adrift.

Mercedes are 160 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors' standings.

RACE WINS

Antonelli has won eight races this season, including five in a row early on. Russell has won three, Norris two, Hamilton and Leclerc one apiece.

Hamilton took his first win since 2024 with victory in Barcelona and Leclerc won in Britain. Russell won in Australia, Austria and Azerbaijan, Antonelli in China, Japan, Miami, Canada, Monaco, Belgium, Italy and Spain, and Norris in Hungary and the Netherlands.

Mercedes have won 11 of 15 races, and the last three.

Hamilton has a record 106 career victories from 395 starts and with three teams.

Verstappen has won 71 grands prix and is third on the all-time list behind Hamilton and Michael Schumacher (91).

POLE POSITION

Mercedes have been on pole in all but four grands prix this season — Russell in Australia, Canada, Barcelona, Austria and Azerbaijan, Antonelli in China, Japan, Miami, Monaco, Britain and Belgium. Norris was on pole in Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain. Alpine's Pierre Gasly took pole in Italy.

Hamilton has had a record 104 career poles, his most recent in Hungary in 2023.

PENALTY

Alpine's Franco Colapinto has a five-place grid penalty for the race after causing a collision at the previous round in Baku.

MILESTONE

The race will be only the fourth case of a national grand prix being held in another country from the one it is representing. The others are the San Marino Grand Prix, held 26 times at Italy's Imola circuit, the Swiss Grand Prix at Dijon-Prenois in France and the Luxembourg Grand Prix at Germany's Nuerburgring.

Sepang, more than 6,000km from Bahrain, is by far the furthest distance between the host country and the nation the race represents.

Verstappen's 2017 win at Sepang came the day after his 20th birthday. He celebrated his 29th birthday on Wednesday (September 30). REUTERS