Bahrain Glass Prix in Malaysia Report
BAHRAIN GLASS PRIX — SEPANG INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT
Cocktail Constructors Championship | Round Report | October 4, 2026
STORMS, SPIRITS, AND SEPANG SUPREMACY
When the skies above Sepang opened up like a shaken bottle of sparkling water, the Bahrain Glass Prix delivered precisely the kind of chaotic, sodden spectacle that makes the Cocktail Constructors Championship the most entertainingly unhinged competition in motorsport parody. Thunderstorms rolled in with temperatures swinging between 24 and 32 degrees Celsius, 8 millimetres of precipitation threatening catastrophic dilution, and winds gusting up to 13 km/h — conditions that would test every recipe, every ingredient, and every bartender-in-a-helmet on the grid. When you are piloting a delicately balanced high-speed beverage, 8 mm of rainwater in the chassis isn't just an inconvenience; it's a total loss of structural integrity and flavour profile.
LIGHTS OUT AND SHAKERS OPEN
As the starting lights went out, the grid roared to life in a symphony of clinking ice and carbonation. Starting from pole position, Marten Vandenberg of Rapid Bull Motorsport deployed the raw, unadulterated horsepower of his Dutch Dynamo Charge. The 60 ml of bourbon provided a heavy, robust rear-end, giving him incredible traction off the line on the damp Sepang asphalt. The 120 ml of Red Bull injected a massive surge of caffeinated acceleration, allowing him to cover the inside line heading into Turn 1 with the kind of aggression that has become his trademark.
Alongside him on the front row, Ollie Pastore's Aussie Apex Passion struggled briefly to find grip in the cooler 24°C morning air. The passionfruit syrup proved momentarily too viscous, the rear lime wheel garnish spinning furiously before the vodka base finally kicked in and propelled the Papaya Racing machine forward with surgical precision. Clean, unflappable, and utterly composed once it found its operating window.
Capitalising on Pastore's sluggish launch, Christophe Lefevre shot up the inside. The Fierano Racing pilot had his Monaco Maestro Blood Orange Fizz dialled in beautifully in the opening laps — the honey syrup acting as a brilliant binding agent, keeping the chassis stable over the slippery Sepang kerbs, while the fresh blood orange juice provided rich mid-range character through the technical first sector.
THE HEAVENS OPEN: 8 MM OF PURE CHAOS
By Lap 15, the dark clouds looming over the circuit finally burst. A violent thunderstorm descended upon the track, and the service bar descended into absolute chaos as teams frantically called their drivers in to swap standard rims for heavy-duty, wide-brimmed cocktail umbrellas to deflect the deluge.
Graham Radcliffe's Silver Streak G&T was arguably the biggest victim of the storm. The Silver Spear Racing chassis — so elegant in dry conditions, with its gin-elderflower-tonic harmony — was already dangerously light when the rain arrived. The elderflower liqueur, never a friend of tropical heat, was struggling to communicate with the rest of the car at 32 degrees Celsius. Worse still, the 13 km/h crosswinds at Turn 6 caught Radcliffe's lemon twist garnish and, acting like a sail, dragged the entire highball glass wide into the runoff area. Radcliffe was doing heroic work to keep the whole thing pointing in the right direction, and the paddock admired him enormously. Admiration, however, does not score championship points.
Meanwhile, Arthur Arun of the Willow Racing Team was putting on a wet-weather masterclass in the Thai Thunder Mojito. The team had boldly opted to leave him out on track, and it paid off beautifully. The optional chili flakes — controversially included for this specific event — acted as an internal combustion heater, keeping the white rum base operating at peak performance even as ambient temperatures plummeted. The fresh mint leaves provided extraordinary aerodynamic downforce, slicing through the crosswinds with the efficiency of a hot knife through butter. There is a beautiful poetry to a Thai-inspired cocktail performing at its absolute zenith at a Malaysian circuit, and the honey-mint-lime triumvirate was working in extraordinary harmony.
Salvador Pedraza's El Rey Margarita suffered a catastrophic failure when the precipitation completely dissolved his salt rim. Without that crucial sodium chloride friction, the Catalyst Racing machine suffered massive understeer and slid helplessly into the gravel at Turn 4. A tequila, fresh lime juice, and Cointreau package with genuine front-running potential, undone entirely by an operational oversight. If that car is underdelivering, the issue is almost certainly not conceptual.
Lachlan Lockhart's race came to an equally premature end. The Toro Tempo Racing driver was pushing the Kiwi Comet Crush to its limits, but the muddled kiwifruit began to disintegrate in the heavy rain, clogging the internal filtration system entirely. The resulting pressure buildup forced a retirement — a cruel fate for a drink that had been showing genuine midfield pace.
Over at the Papaya Racing service bar, disaster nearly struck for Logan Northrop. Brought in for a crucial dark rum top-up to counteract rainwater dilution, the mixologists fumbled the orange slice garnish, losing an agonising 4.5 seconds to secure it to the rim. In the fiercely competitive world of the Glass Prix, a 4.5-second garnish application is a lifetime. Northrop emerged from the bar furious, and motivated.
MID-RACE: THE STORIES THAT MADE THE RACE
Kari Ambrosini of Silver Spear Racing was having a considerably more productive afternoon than his teammate Radcliffe. The Roman Rocket Spritz — with its Aperol component providing that distinctive bittersweet balance — was handling the conditions with youthful fearlessness. The fresh orange juice was cutting through the humidity, and the soda water was, unlike the Silver Streak G&T's tonic component, entirely unbothered by the rain. Ambrosini was carving through the midfield with the confidence of someone who hasn't yet learned to be afraid of Sepang in a monsoon.
Cesar Serrat's Matador Sunrise was also impressing. The tequila chassis was providing remarkable stability in the wet, the fresh orange juice managing the surface water beautifully — though as the track began to dry and temperatures climbed back toward 32°C, the orange juice practically boiled in the sidepods, forcing Serrat to lift and coast to preserve his tequila base. That layered grenadine profile can look spectacular and cost you dearly in the same afternoon.
Francisco Aroca of Ashton Marvel Racing, competing in what the paddock knows may be among his final seasons, drove the Iberian Paloma with the kind of measured brilliance that only comes from decades of experience. The grapefruit juice base handled the crosswinds better than almost anything else on track, the salt rim providing aerodynamic bite through the high-speed sections. Aroca knows circuits like Sepang the way a master bartender knows his back shelf: intimately, instinctively, and with enormous respect.
Lawrence Harrington of Fierano Racing was absolutely flying in the wet. The muddled fresh strawberries in the Britannia Bolt Fizz provided a thick, grippy undertray that excelled in the damp conditions, allowing him to deploy the sparkling water component for maximum top speed down the back straight. If only the team's operational execution matched the quality of the recipe.
Pascal Girard of Alpen GP had a quietly excellent afternoon in the Alpen Arrow 75. The sparkling wine base was admittedly getting a little confused by the precipitation — there is something existentially troubling about a sparkling wine component being rained upon — but the gin foundation and honey syrup kept the car beautifully balanced throughout. Girard was extracting the absolute maximum from a recipe that, on paper, shouldn't have been this competitive in these conditions.
THE HEATWAVE AND THE CHEQUERED FLAG
As quickly as the storm arrived, it vanished. The Malaysian sun beat down on the Sepang asphalt, and the sudden heat caused rapid evaporation and caramelisation across the sugar-heavy drinks on the grid. The final five laps became a thrilling battle of attrition.
Vandenberg's Dutch Dynamo Charge was running lean — the Red Bull component had lost almost all of its carbonation in the 32°C heat — but the sheer, unbridled horsepower of the bourbon base carried him through the technical final sector. Pastore, having survived his sticky start, found extraordinary pace on the drying track. He utilised the soda water in the Aussie Apex Passion to deploy a massive burst of DRS (Drink Reduction System) down the main straight, closing the gap to Vandenberg to mere tenths. The lime wheel garnish was a blur as Pastore threw the Papaya Racing machine into the final hairpin.
But it wasn't quite enough.
PODIUM: THREE ONTO THE ROSTRUM
🥇 P1 — Marten Vandenberg | Dutch Dynamo Charge — Dominant, aggressive, and a masterclass in dilution management. The bourbon base carried him when the Red Bull carbonation faded, and sheer determination dragged the Rapid Bull Motorsport entry to a spectacular, hard-fought victory.
🥈 P2 — Ollie Pastore | Aussie Apex Passion — The vodka base was cutting through standing water with surgical precision by the end, and the passionfruit syrup delivered exceptional downforce through the slow corners. A superb recovery drive from a difficult opening lap.
🥉 P3 — Christophe Lefevre | Monaco Maestro Blood Orange Fizz — A flawless, quiet race from the Fierano Racing star. The fresh blood orange juice provided the exact right acidity to cut through both the 24°C rain and the 32°C heatwave, and the honey syrup held the chassis together when everything around him was falling apart.
THE UPGRADE BULLETIN
Our technical correspondents have been busy in the post-race debrief:
Silver Streak G&T: The elderflower liqueur is simply not built for 32-degree Malaysian thunderstorms. Silver Spear Racing should consider a Navy Strength gin base to lower the centre of gravity in wet conditions, and replace the delicate elderflower with a denser botanical — cucumber-infused gin has been mooted in the engineering suite — to anchor the suspension and prevent the drink from washing out in high winds.
Monaco Maestro Blood Orange Fizz: Reduce the sparkling water component for wet-weather circuits and increase the honey syrup calibration for additional structural stability. The blood orange juice needs a more robust chassis around it. Less dependence on the fizzing top note; more authority from the core.
Dutch Dynamo Charge: A slightly larger fresh lemon juice component would calm the bourbon-Red Bull surge and improve rotational balance in mixed conditions. Vandenberg won today on talent and bourbon torque. He shouldn't have to.
El Rey Margarita: Bolder deployment of the salt rim and sharper lime precision. That car should not be wandering the midfield — and certainly not retiring in the gravel — when it has front-running ingredients in the locker.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
The Bahrain Glass Prix at Sepang was, in the finest tradition of the Cocktail Constructors Championship, simultaneously a serious sporting contest and a glorious, rain-soaked celebration of the absurd. Rapid Bull Motorsport leaves Malaysia with the winner's trophy. Papaya Racing leaves with the momentum of a team that looks devastatingly complete. Silver Spear Racing leaves with admiration and a soggy lemon twist. And somewhere in the Sepang paddock, a very damp Laurent Stern is staring at his Maple Mach Old Fashioned and wondering if maple syrup has any business being at a tropical circuit at all.
It does not, Laurent. It does not.
The championship picture remains deliciously unstable. The storm gave us drama. The drinks gave us theatre. And the Cocktail Constructors Championship remains exactly what it should be: one wrong shake away from complete and beautiful disaster.
See you at the next Glass Prix. Drink responsibly. Drive fictionally.
— Cocktail Constructors Championship | Official Race Report | Sepang, October 4, 2026