Isack Hadjar said he could not defend his podium position in the closing laps of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on Oct. 4, after a battery problem left him vulnerable to Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. The two drivers passed him soon after the race restarted, and Hadjar finished fifth.

Hadjar had held off Hamilton for many laps earlier in the race while Hamilton was using medium tyres. The balance changed when Hamilton switched to soft tyres under the Safety Car. Once the race resumed, Hadjar said he had no battery to challenge the Ferraris on the straight.

“I had no battery, something like that,” Hadjar said. “So there was no contest against the Ferraris in the straight.”

The driver was also dissatisfied with his pace before the late passes. He said he did not know why the car had so little grip, and described his speed as poor throughout the event. “I don’t know what happened in terms of the grip I had on the car,” he said. “The whole race I was so slow.”

“I don’t know what happened to my pace, but [it] really [was] one race to put in the bin,” Hadjar said. He added: “We’ll fix the issue and understand why we are so bad today.”

The report was published at 12:22 on Oct. 4, 2026, by Keith Collantine. It said the article would be updated. Related coverage listed Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff describing Mercedes’ Sepang race as “one of my worst experiences,” Max Verstappen taking his first win of 2026 in Malaysia after power unit faults delayed the start, the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia race result and championship points, and a vote for the race’s Driver of the Weekend.

Collantine, a lifelong motor sport fan, founded RaceFans in 2005, when the site was called F1 Fanatic. He had previously worked as a motoring journalist and began running the site full-time in 2010, pursuing his ambition to focus entirely on motor racing.

Based on reporting by RaceFans.