F1 Q&A: Hamilton, Malaysia, wet races, Red Bull and Ford and the future of engines

The Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia began in wet conditions, though not at the original start time because visibility was considered to be too poor

Red Bull's Max Verstappen won his first race of the season in a dramatic rain-affected Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

Antonelli extended his lead in the championship to 84 points, after team-mate George Russell retired with an engine failure.

Before the race at Marina Bay, BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your latest questions.

This question comes up a lot whenever there is a wet race, but in this specific situation the delay in starting the race was not caused by any conservatism when it comes to wet running.

That meant the formation laps had to be aborted, and a new code written and given to the teams to upload to ensure that did not happen again.

On a generic level, there is no fundamental objection in F1 to racing in the wet - most of the drivers enjoy it. But there is now a collective agreement that they will not race when they can't see where they are going.

But if you cast your mind back to Brazil in 2024, and Verstappen's brilliant drive from 17th on the grid to victory, that was run in wet conditions.

After the Bahrain Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton said that, had he started on the intermediate tyres, he could have won the race. Given the race data and his pace, do you think that's a realistic claim had Ferrari put him on the inters at the start? - Michael

In the first few laps, Hamilton was on slicks and Verstappen on intermediates. When Verstappen switched to slicks, Hamilton's tyres were much older.

And then once he finally passed Hadjar, there were only three laps to go.

What we can say is that Verstappen looked imperious all weekend, and it was probably going to be difficult for anyone to beat him - even Hamilton, who, it's worth saying, on Saturday was not sounding that confident of challenging him.