Making the day even better, Lawson’s teammate Arvid Lindblad drove from the back of the grid to claim the final point as 10th, as both Alpine cars failed to score for the second race in succession to give Racing Bulls a boost in the fight to finish fifth in the constructors championship.

At the front of the grid, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen ended his wait to return to the top step of the podium, and claimed his first race win of the season after qualifying first, but losing the lead in a frenetic start in the wet, before reclaiming it and never looking back.

Given the nine years between racing in Malaysia, the victory means Verstappen holds the record for the longest gap between two wins at the same circuit.

The real winner, though, was Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli – who claimed second as his teammate and closest challenger in the world championship, George Russell, failed to finish having threatened to finish on the podium.

With seven grands prix remaining this year, barring any further rescheduling, Antonelli now leads Russell by 84 points in the world championship standings, as he bids to become the youngest man to win the drivers title.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton completed the podium in third, having qualified second but suffered for keeping slick tyres on in the wet at the start.

Formula One continues next week for the third race of this triple header, with the Singapore Grand Prix.

With torrential rain delaying the race by more than 90 minutes, the call to keep Lawson on intermediate tyres paid off immediately. After gaining a place before lights out when Gasly left the track on slicks, the Kiwi climbed as high as third as drivers in front of him struggled in the wet conditions.

While Lawson was overtaken by both Red Bull cars by lap seven, the Kiwi benefited again on lap nine when Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas lost control of his car and left the track to trigger a safety car.

That allowed Lawson to pit under yellow flags, and change his intermediate tyres for a set of hards, and kept hold of fifth place when the race resumed on lap 13, and pushed his lead to more than three seconds over the car behind him.

However, as the race wore on, Lawson lost out to the faster cars behind him – as the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton won out on lap 23, before the McLaren of Oscar Piastri did the same on lap 30.

That saw the Kiwi head for the pits, in an attempt to undercut both McLarens, as Lawson emerged in 12th but climbed back to ninth by the end of his second lap on new tyres, with his teammate immediately behind him.

The attempted undercut of the McLarens paid off temporarily, as Lawson climbed back to seventh, before he was passed by Piastri and Lando Norris by the start of lap 40.

A late safety car, triggered when Williams’ Alex Albon suffered a broken gearbox, added some late drama, and saw the field bunched for the final laps, as a power unit failure for Mercedes’ George Russell and an Norris leaving the track saw Lawson gain two more places.

And as the race resumed with three laps to go, Lawson changing tyres behind the safety car gave him more than enough to hold on to take seventh place for the fourth time this year, after an unsuccessful duel with Piastri for sixth.

Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia finishing order

Did not finish: George Russell – Mercedes, Alex Albon – Williams, Valtteri Bottas – Cadillac

Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.