TGR Haas F1 Team finished with Oliver Bearman 14th, and Esteban Ocon 15th, at Round 16 of the 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, held Sunday at Sepang International Circuit.
The race start was postponed for 40 minutes due to torrential rainfall during the build-up, with the formation lap beginning behind the safety car. Both Bearman and Ocon took the Cinturato Green intermediate tires, but several drivers experienced hybrid power control software issues on the formation lap, prompting Race Control to suspend the start procedure. The field returned to the pit lane, and another delay of 50 minutes followed while the technical situation was rectified up and down the grid, before the race finally began behind the safety car.
The circuit conditions evolved during the interim, prompting a split strategy for the standing start on lap three, with Bearman lining up from 16th on Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires, while Ocon remained on intermediates in 17th position. The circuit still held sufficient damp patches, facilitating those on intermediates, enabling Ocon to leap up to eighth, while Bearman was shuffled down to 20th place. Ocon passed the Williams drivers to surge into sixth, before the safety car was called on lap 9 for Valtteri Bottas’ stranded Cadillac, providing an opportune time for Ocon to box for Red soft tires as the circuit dried. Bearman also came into the pits, switching onto Yellow medium tires.
Ocon took the restart from sixth place and maintained position, before being passed by the recovering Ferrari and McLaren drivers, shuffling down to the foot of the top 10. Ocon came into the pits on lap 29, switching to White hard tires, re-emerging in 11th place, before coming in again on lap 41 for soft tires. Bearman, who took the restart from 20th place, came in for his second stop on lap 25 for hard tires, and gradually worked his way through the lower midfield, before he came into the pits once more on lap 39, changing onto another set of hard tires. A late safety car period, caused by Alex Albon’s Williams coming to a halt, bunched up the field, and after a five-lap dash to the checkered flag Bearman classified 14th, with Ocon 15th.
TGR Haas F1 Team maintains seventh position in the Constructors’ Championship on 27 points.
Up front Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen claimed victory, ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Scuderia Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.
Esteban Ocon: “We had an amazing start to the race, running in P6. Of course, we were not going to stay there, but we looked good for points. As soon as we made the stop, we started going backwards, so we need to look into a few things. It’s not the way we should end that race, and I’m sad for everyone who has done a good job on the car this weekend, but there are some choices we could’ve made differently. Potentially we could’ve kept fighting the Racing Bulls, where we should’ve been, but that’s not where we’ve finished.”
